Hello all in my MCOM 101 class at Emory & Henry College.

Hope you will learn a lot from your close reading of chapter 4 “Magazines: Targeting the Audience” (pp. 69-86) in our course textbook.

We will have a hands-on activity in our class focusing on this chapter. So pay close attention (as I like to reward folks who come to our class and participate).

Be sure, as you examine this chapter, that you remember what I share with you in class about professional opportunities in the magazine industry and about what direction the magazine industry seems to be headed, in terms of content and emphasis.

And bear in mind my advice on how to go about getting something you write or want to write or want to photograph published in a magazine. I will cite some of my personal experience in this regard to help benefit you.

The connection between advertisers or advertising and the editorial content of a magazine is extremely important.  Is that connection an unholy alliance? For example, imagine a magazine containing a full page ad extolling the benefits of a certain vodka.  Imagine, too, thumbing through that same magazine and finding an article, purporting to be truthful and fair or balanced, that focused on all the good things that can happen to you if you drink vodka.  Would that article/ad connection smack of an unholy alliance?

Know, too, the various kinds or categories of magazines and examples of each.  We will touch on this in class.

In addition, to help guide you in your study of magazines, be able to answer (on page 85) the five “Critical Questions.”

Other key terms/key points you should become thoroughly familiar with relative to this chapter are listed in blue under “Key Terms” on page 85. Be able to define or explain each of these terms.

In addition, you should also become conversant with the following terms or names associated with our study of magazines. I will try (time permitting) to make it a point to touch on these in class (but if I don’t, be sure to do some research and know how they relate to magazines).

demassification
personality profile
photo essay
newsmagazines
investigative reporting
women’s mags.
men’s mags.
trade, technical and professional magazines
Consumer magazines
Company magazines
Ida Tarbell
Hugh Hefner
Henry Luce
Sara Josepha Hale
Company magazines
The New Yorker
Divisions or areas of work in magazines (see top left of page 78)
Freelancers
Point-of-purchase magazines
Webzines
Idea of targeting for magazines
Pass-along readership
W.E.B. Du Bois
Demographics of magazine readership


What does it take to succeed in magazine portrait photography? Here's an instructive video: