978-1506344461 Chapter 5 Lecture note

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Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Lecture Builders

Chapter 5

Lecture Builders

SLIDE HINT:

All of the covers of Esquire, including the George Lois ones, can be found at

• www.esquire.com/cover-archive

All the covers of Time can be found at

• www.time.com/time/coversearch/

Here is the story behind Time’s 9/11 cover

• http://time.com/4484978/911-september-11-time-cover/

All of the covers of Life can be found at

• www.life.com/Life/cover_search/

Here is a collection of great and/or controversial magazine covers from a variety of sources that I use in

my lectures:

• http://www.ralphehanson.com/2014/02/19/great-magazine-covers/

MATHEW BRADY

During the American Civil War, photographers were making increased use of wet plate glass

negatives, which allowed the photographer to easily make multiple prints. Earlier techniques included

using a paper negative that was only good for a limited number of imprints. But note that the

technological advance of the glass negatives involved the photographer having to safely carry around

large numbers of glass plates through a war zone!

NOTES: In 1997, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery staged a major exhibition of Mathew

Brady’s portraits. While the exhibit is long over, it can still be viewed on the Web:

www.npg.si.edu/exh/brady/

While this site is partially broken, there are still some interesting images available there.

Mathew Brady’s photos and his promotion of them brought photojournalism into the mainstream.

Today, many people know Brady’s photos from their extensive use in the Ken Burn’s documentary series

The Civil War that aired on PBS. The photo of Nathaniel Hawthorne in Chapter 4 was taken by Brady.

HEROIN CHIC

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Lecture Builders

A controversy connected to magazine advertising and fashion spreads has been the so-called

heroin chic look epitomized by Calvin Klein model Kate Moss, known for her emaciated, waif-like

appearance. After Moss admitted she had been drunk on the job for the last ten years, Calvin Klein

ended his long-running contract with the super-thin model, though the designer claimed the separation

had nothing to do with her confession. The controversy surrounding Moss went beyond her heavy

drinking, heroin-chic look, and her having posed nude in slick magazine advertisements for jeans and

underwear. The big source of criticism was that she presented an unrealistic and unobtainable image of

what an attractive woman should look like. A teenage girl who runs track, weighs ninety-five pounds,

and is five feet tall told People magazine, “I’m not happy if I think I look fat in what I’m wearing. Kate

Moss looks so cool in a bathing suit. I don’t know if I’m conditioned [to think this way] or if it’s just me,

but I don’t think anything could make me abandon my desire to be thin.”

A DAY AT THE BEACH

Time’s Light Box takes a look at how ten prominent photographers took a look at a day at the beach.

There’s an amazing range of people and stories to be told at that favorite of summer destinations.

• http://time.com/4433438/beach-photos

LITERARY MAGAZINES

Harper’s and The Atlantic Monthly continue to be significant magazines even in the 21st century.

You can get a feel for what these magazines are currently doing at their websites:

Harper’s Magazine―www.harpers.org/

The Atlantic ―www.theatlantic.com/

NOTES: The key difference between the literary magazines and most consumer magazines is that literary

magazines do not focus on products you can buy. Instead, their focus is on ideas. Their circulation tends

to be much smaller than the glossy news and FBL publications. (Even the newsmagazines like Time

devote considerable amounts of space to topics, such as popular books, music and movies, investments,

and even cars.)

THE CRISIS:

The Crisis now has a website located at www.thecrisismagazine.com/

While it is somewhat limited in what it reprints from the magazine, the site does have the current cover,

which highlights the more serious tone that it takes these days. It also has an excerpt from the first issue

of The Crisis and a copy of the magazine’s first cover.

Karen S. Schneider, et al., “Mission Impossible; Deluged by Images From TV, Movies and Magazines, Teenage

Girls Do Battle with an Increasingly Unrealistic Standard of Beauty—and Pay a Price,” People, June 3, 1996.

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Lecture Builders

SLIDE HINT: You can build a great slide presentation about The Crisis by pairing the graphic of the

original cover with that of a recent one.

IDA M. TARBELL

You can learn more about the pioneering investigative journalist Tarbell and the staff at

McClure’s at the Ida M. Tarbell website hosted by her alma mater, Allegheny College:

http://tarbell.allegheny.edu/

While the site does not appear to be currently updated, it still has a wealth of useful materials.

NOTES: The Ida M. Tarbell site includes remarks given upon her induction into the National Women’s

Hall of Fame, Tarbell’s role as a pioneering woman in journalism, and a history of McClure’s magazine.

TIME

Time has a massive website that includes Web only material as well as extensive archives. And

although Life magazine suspended publication in 2000, its images can still be found on the Life website.

Included on the site is a complete collection of the magazine’s covers from the time it was published

weekly.

NOTES: Time has updated its site quite a bit, adding bloggers and news headlines to go with its

traditional archive of print materials.

SLIDE HINT: Both the Time and Life websites have complete cover archives that can provide topical

illustrations for almost any historical media topic, as well as for the magazine unit. (See above.)

GODEY’S LADY’S BOOK

What were women’s magazines like in the 19th century? Take a visit to the Godey’s Lady’s Book