I never would have thought that a local newspaper would have a fighting chance against such juggernaut publications as the New York Times and Washington Post, but after doing some research my opinion has changed completely. I realized that many people are more interested in what's going on closer to home than what some country's dictator has done on the other side of the world. Although I do feel it's a bit naïve to assume that no one cares about world issues, stories that actually affect our day-to-day lives are more personal. We want to read about things that interest us like the removal of that pesky neighborhood speed bump or the outcome of our local sports team's last game. It seems to me that while larger newspapers provide stories on a much more global scale, they are never the only ones to do so. Several large market papers are vying for a similar spot at the top. For this reason, websites and blogs will continue to update us on world news long after the Times and it's counter-parts have perished in print form. I get a lot of my national information from news-oriented magazines like the Week. I find the Week to be a more compelling read because it reports on important social and political issues in a unique way. Instead of printing only one article on a given story, it presents them by bringing together excerpts of conflicting opinions from different papers and websites. This helps to keep the news they report very neutral since they tend to have many different viewpoints on the same issue. I also enjoy how the Week has titled sections that are in each and every printing, making it easier for me to find the parts of the magazine that I know will interest me the most like reviews of film & art, or a collage of that week's best political cartoons.
Though interesting, and very popular, I don't think this magazine-like format that brings together many publications into one would thrive on a local level. It wouldn't work as well in my opinion simply because there are less people to write about the same stories when you are dealing with a significantly lower population. This will ensure that print forms of smaller papers live on while the larger ones are condensed and forced online. This video by a man named Nicholas Lemann makes a lot of sense to me and helped me form many of my opinions on print media.
As the popularity and demand for newspapers continues to decline, one or two of the wide-scale dominators will stand alone as our last links to a time since passed. A nostalgic look back to the days of having to choose which form of black and white print is our favorite.
In the end, the safer, more long-lasting side of newspapers will be found in rags such as the Dundalk Eagle or the Avenue News. These smaller town publications are more focused on issues that directly affect their publics and they will always be around to report the local news, however mundane and nationally meaningless it may be.
After taking the time to check out magazines at a few local stores and on the internet, I saw some things that made me shake my head at the entire industry. First of all, the desperation is palpable. Many of the obviously altered cover photos promote an unrealistic body image. The cover above is an example of what I'm talking about. The largest words on the page (besides the name of the magazine) are "Body Confidence". Then there are checks next to the words "Tight Abs" and "Lean Legs". They make it seem like you must have these particular features or you won't be attractive. The woman in the photo is very skinny and is not what I would say most woman actually look like. Photos and words like this combine on many different covers I saw to create a false standard that I would bet many women try to hold themselves to. I know that some of the men on covers I saw such as this one:
put my body to shame. This chiseled guy has the word "HOT!" right next to him as if to say "This is what is hot." I feel that his body is definitely not the norm. Almost no one I know even slightly resembles this. Photos such as these make me self-conscious about the way I look and I know I can't be the only one. Male or female, our bodies are all under fire. As I mentioned, these magazines are desperate, begging to be purchased with some literally saying things like "You NEED This Magazine". One common thing I saw, that I feel is a desperate move, is the presence of large numbers on covers. They would often correspond to lists of ways to do something better as if to say that we all need to improve. These numbers are a way of drawing us in. Association is human nature, so when we see a number, our brains want to know what it means. The last thing I would like to touch on is the fact that they put many stars like Miley Cyrus and Justin Beiber under the microscope.
Their personal lives are displayed on covers for all to see. I think this is wrong and distasteful because celebrities are people too. If there were paparazzi following me around in my high school days the way they follow Miley and Justin I can only imagine the headlines I would of caught for my antics. In the end, I do not approve of these tacky publications and I have virtually no urge to buy them.
