Magazines I CANNOT live without

So, to be totally honest, I don't really buy magazines anymore; I kinda pasted that phase in life where I had to get the latest [insert teen magazine name] magazine issue to read up on the "Five things the Jonas Brothers can't live without or "Zac Efron's new movie" or whatever. I used to buy every month issue of seventeen magazine and to this day I still have a stack of them in my room unread for the past 4 years. However, I still catch up on my does of celebrity gossip when i go to the super market and pick up a copy of OK! or Cosmo or People, or Us Weekly. I read as much as i can as me and mom go shopping and place it back on the rack as we walk out. A lot of the time i can read the same articles online, or watch E! News and find out whats going on there. So in conclusion, I still find out about how "Lady Gaga shaved the back of her heard" or "Christina Aguilera is leaving The Voice", but not necessarily from a print magazine.

Big Ideas for the Magazine Print Industry

1. Decline of general interest and Rise of special interest magazines
2. The Staff: Editorial, Advertising, and Circulation
3. Controversy

• In the late 1960s to early 1970s, the General Interest magazines were in decline due to fewer advertisers, who were turning to television to place their ads. The demand for the magazines was still successful, but the high prices to produce the magazines led to the cutting of subscription, and then stopping production all together. In the latter part of the 20th century, the attention was put on special interest magazines, creating  target marketing, a milestone in mass media. Specialized magazines offered their reader specific information they couldn't find anywhere else, and these are the magazines that generate the most revue today, particularly consumer magazines.
• The players in the magazine industry are the Editorial staff, the advertising staff, and circulation staff. The Editor in Chief is the head of the editorial  staff and decides what goes in the magazine. Other supporting editors supervise specific sections/topics in the magazines to oversee and write about. The Advertising staff is in charge of creating a relationship with advitisors; this department either makes or breaks a magazine. Advertisers are needed to money to produce the magazine and for content (particularly for consumer magazines). The last is circulation staff, who is in charge of finding and keeping subscribers, etc.
• Of course, there has to be some controversy, this time its particularly about the "message" magazines portray, particularly about the image of women. For example, fashion magazines portray women as to thin, "men entertainment" magazines send the message that they can treat men any which way, and so on. Other controversy included writing information that is more fiction that fact (National Enquirer) and so on and so on.

Big Question:

The age old question: How will magazines compete with new technology, and the convenience of the internet? Obviously the magazine business is fairing pretty well compare to the newspaper, because of their specific topics for specific consumers. But how long will this last? Will advertisers find new venues to place their ads? Stay tuned.

Big Ideas for the Newspaper Print Industry

1. Associated Press: Changes the way Journalism is written
2. Economics: How will the newspaper survivie?
3. Controversy

• In 1848, the Associated Press was formed, which was the first wire service used by newspapers. The objective behind this was for newspapers to be able to share correspondents and news to save money. In order for the news to be appropriate for all newspapers, journalist had to write the news in an unbiased way, separating opinion from fact (objectivity). This connects with modern day journalism because over the past years, certain newspapers have shown a biased point of view on certain issues. My question is: Does this hurt the success and purpose of the AP, or have editors adapted to the situation???
• Within the past few years, newspapers have gone through tough economic times. Advertisers are choosing to "sell" their products to the public via venues on the Internet rather than print. This is contributed in part by low circulation. So the question is: how will the newspaper save its self??
• Controversy revolving around the free press is an on going issue, particularly with the issue of diversity. Not all of America is made up of heterosexual, protestant  Anglos. There is obviously other ethnic, religious, sexual orientation groups ergo other point of views. This means that the Major news outlets, including the newspaper, should reflect that in their papers. One obvious solution is the Alternative Press, where the low-stream ideas could be heard. But wait, I thought that mainstream news, particularly newspapers, was supposed to be unbiased? If they were we wouldn't have this problem in the first place...right! So Equal Opportunity is a very important issue that all news outlets should be mindful of, BUT good journalism should not be compromised over the issue of "oh, we need more minority people in the office". Television news is entitled to their biased and so forth, but newspapers should concentrate on unbiased news.

Three Big Ideas of the Print Media

1. The Print Revolution
2. Censorship of printed material and the controversy surrounding that
3. Types of books

The big printing revolution started when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type. Prior to this people were dependent on "Oral culture", which was when people had to depend on local experts to interpret books and teach about it. However, this all changed with the printing of books; people were able to read writings from all over the world and were able to think and interpret on their own. This sparked the minds of many people and they no longer had to rely on what they were told.

With the overflow of so many different ideas and opinions, controversy erupted over the influence of books. Many books that are thought of as classics today were under attack when it was first written because of the subject matter and themes of the novels/publication. The argument of the first amendment has been brought up in many of these challenges in order to protect an authors rights, but the issue is still one of debate.

In the print industry there are different types of books. Trade books are sold to the general public and are fiction or non fiction. educational books are generally textbooks used in elementary, middle, and high school, and in college. Reference books are, of course, used as a references for studying and learning. Professional books are used in specific trades/occupations.

Big Question: With the advances in electronic reading, how will book publishers compete for sales of printed books? How will they adapt in order to continue in the printing business?

ATTENTION!!!!!

I want to just add to my recent post on a serious topic that i totally forgot about: e-readers and all that stuff. If the whole world switched to e-readers and kindles and nooks i would probably be one of the only people still buying actual books. Newspapers, magazines and other stuff I would gladly read on those devices, BUT actual books, stories and novels I like to actually HOLD in my hands and FEEL and SMELL the pages! I sound a little insane, but something about actually holding a book and reading the words from the pages, not the screen, is something I will always love. Yes, yes, e-readers do have their benefits, their smaller, less bulky yada, yada, yada, but I don't know...for now i would like to read the old fashioned way.

What do I read?

I consider myself a pretty avid reader; a characteristic literally drilled into me by my mother. From an early age my mom would oh so cruelly force me to read, read, read, and eventually I actually started to like to read, so much so that I had to be reading a book at any given time; when I finished reading a book, I picked another one and proceeded to read it during my free time and so on. I love to read because I feel as though its an escape from life into another world, a way to truly relax and unwind from the annoying little issues of the day. For me watching television or going online could never quiet give me the joy I get from reading.


So, the question is what do I read, How do I read it and where? Aside from the novels and books that I read, I usually read magazines, and news from online. I haven't read an actual newspaper in YEARS but I do read articles online about current events. The magazines I read are fashion (Vogue, Elle, Nylon, Seventeen In Style) and tabloid magazines (People, Star, US weekly, OK, In Touch weekly etc.) I hate when I have a bunch of old magazines around my room (my room's messy enough...I do NOT need more clutter) so I usually read the magazines when I go to the market (don't judge!) and if I missed anything, I usually look online at home for articles.


And that's pretty much what I read. (I'm not even going to go into the annoying, I mean useful and education :) textbooks I have to read for school; but in all honestly I do love my Mass Communication book and class because duh that's my major. I chose it for a reason because that's what I'm really interested in.)

First Blog Post, Ever...

I've never had a blog before, never cared to have one for that matter BUT yesterday I started my first day at St. John's University and I have a particular class, Into to Mass Communication, and my Professor asked us all to start a blog. So here I am :) Our first assignment was to list 10 of our favorites in Film, music, TV and Books. So here are my faves.

Favorite Films: 

1. "Pride and Prejudice"- 2005
2. "Avatar"-2009
3. "Sex and the City"-2008

Favorite Books:

1. "The Sky Is Everywhere"- by Jandy Nelson 2010
2. "The Hunger Game"- by Suzanne Collins 2008 (for the record I became a fan of Suzanne Collin's writing WAYY before Hunger Games became the "new cool thing".
3. Percy Jackson and the Olympian series- by Rick Riordan (Ok, yea I'm a nerd...whatever)
4. Song of the Sparrow- by Lisa Ann Sandell 2007

Favorite Television:

1. Keeping Up With The Kardashians- E network (this is one of my guiltiest pleasures, which i am NOT proud of but something about those women make me tune back in every week...don't judge)
2. The Real Housewives Series- Bravo network
3. Talent Shows, such as The Voice, America's Got Talent, ABDC (every season I pick on show to watch, for what reason i don't know but they're all very intruiging to me, all but American Idol, I've been over Idol for years now).
4. Pretty much any other reality show on Oxygen, MTV, VHI (I pretty much watch reality shows)
5. Pretty Little Liars- ABC Family (i read the books that the show is based on in middle school and have been hooked on it ever since the pilot show, pretty much the only drama television i watch these days.

Favorite Artists:

1. Nicki Minaj (she's just wild and crazy, but i love it)
2. Lady Gaga (more than anything I love her style, that she's from New York, and she doesn't give a damn about what people thinks of her, she's like a real chick)
3. I like any pop/rock/dance music that on the billboard charts that month, i don't really have that much favorite songs or specific artist because it varies all the time, on minute i'll like someone and then i might hate there next few singles. Pretty much anything playing on 92.3 NOW i like, because thats the radio station i listen too.

So here are all my favorites (that i can remember at the moment). I couldn't keep it to ten so i gave the best 15. Hope you enjoy!