Journal Entry-Magazines.

Go to a bookstore (not BYU’s) and look at the different magazines. Select one that appeals to a highly specialized audience (different from one of your own interests). Read through the magazine and based on the magazine’s content (including the advertisements) prepare a description of the magazine’s “typical reader.” Give specific examples to justify your generalization.

Well, as I was perusing (nice word usage?) The shelves of the Borders book store near where I work, I stumbled upon "Field and Stream" I am not really into hunting and I haven't fished for years so I guess it's safe for something that isn't that interesting to me. Flipping through it, I saw some interesting stuff. The focus of this particular issue was how to find and kill that "big buck" that all hunters dream of. Judgeing by the advertisments for camoflauge suits, nice scopes, and other hunting parephanelia, I would guess that the typical reader would be a 15 to 40 year old caucasian male. From the adds in the pictures and the way the articles were written, it was pretty obvious that that is the target audience. Articles such as the best photos of shot deer from the year before and a discussion on whether or not camo is needed in hunting, makes this magazine very specific in who it is targeting.



What impact will/has the electronic media have/had on the magazine industry?
The TV was HUGE in impacting the magazine industry, the internet... not so much. Most magazines you try to look up online have teaser content and are basically grolified ads for the magazine. I suppose if you could easily find full issues of magazines on the internet for free, it would be different. But as it is, people like to have their physical copy to carry around and to check out the pictures. It's nice to place a magazine in a dentists waiting room and in bathrooms as well. Harder to set out laptops...
I don't think that the internet as it is now will change the magazine industry much. Maybe one day our technology will advance such that we will have virtual magazines, but as for now I will still flip through the readers digest waiting for my eye doctor to see me.