Week 4 Lecture
Dreiser: Big novel – get reading…
Class test – will discuss in seminars
Magazines and The Creation of a Mass Audience
Implied in idea of “creation” issue raised previously with regard to penny press – creating a demand or need for a certain kind of content vs meeting existing needs – see in more complex terms:
Areas of lecture
1 Historical developments
2 Thoughts on how to interpret
3 case studies – gender stereotypes in illustration and magazine discourse in short stories…
Historical development
1. “Now a definition: mass culture in societies like this one includes voluntary experiences, produced by a relatively small number of specialists, for millions across the nation to share, in similar or identical form, either simultaneously or nearly so; with dependable frequency; mass culture shapes habitual audiences, around common needs or interests, and is made for profit.” Richard Ohmann, Selling Culture
Talk through terms
Ohmann – “Where did mass culture come from?”
“What does mass culture do, in and to societies like ours?”
Suggests in his book Selling Culture that mass magazines of the 1890s an important place to start answering these questions
Makes a special case of mass magazines in 1890s as a point of ‘origin’
1885-1900 as “the inaugural moment … of our national mass culture”
In periodical publishing three obvious challenges to idea of 1890s magazines as significant point of origin
Penny press
1. circulation of penny press 300,000 by 1840 – still only 1 for every 57 people - local
“Physically, these papers were drab … They made no appeal to the eye.”
Sensational, entertaining (moon hoax, reports on Barnum etc – but still mostly taken up by business/politics/current affairs – think about way newspapers are consumed – not a ‘leisure’ activity – read on way to work/for information/in order to get ahead
Post civil war respectable, elite monthliesHarper’s, Century, Atlantic 200,000 35 cents by 1890
Elite magazines establish paradigm mix – but target financially established audience
-elite too in terms of content – quite specifically New England orientated coming out of earlier print culture
Leisure time – but require lots of time – stereotype but imagine wealthy middle class man in oak study reading before attending his club…
Henry James, William Dean Howells, Sarah Orn Jewett – Highbrow – (Granta, London Review of Books, The Believer etc)
3. Yellow Press – dailies that look more like mod. Tabs – the New York World as an example
Pictorial – emphasis on colour – like penny press sensationalism but taken to another level – discuss Rough Riders – more generally reporting of Spanish American War in Cuba – “star” reporters embedded with troops
Entertaining – Sunday “funny page” – discuss Yellow Kid
building relationship to other forms of culture - branding
Still newspaper – news orientated
Mass Market magazines of 1890s combine elements to create what Ohmann argues is first mass culture…
Price drop:
1893 McClure’s 15 cents, Cosmopolitan 12 ½ cents Munsey’s a dime
Dramatic increase in space given over to advertising
LHJ and later Post – which eventually becomes biggest circulation of all (topping 1 million by 1908)
Appeal – colour, entertainment
And ‘quality’ as attainable commodity
Way that consumed – large magazines – combination of literature, reports, photo essays etc – construct idea of ‘leisure time’ – Liberty magazine in 1920s famous gimmick of including ‘read time’ at the start of each feature
“culture shapes habitual audiences, around common needs or interests”
Aspirational stories – corroborate advertisements – how to features that inform new middle class of how to achieve lifestyle/become good consumers
Establish a middle ground – appeal to broad national audience
2. “The Journal, the Post, and other new titles such as Munsey's, McClure's, and Cosmopolitan existed in a symbiotic relationship with other aspects of mass culture. When increasingly conglomerate corporations needed to launch major advertising campaigns in order to create demand for mass-produced goods, they found that magazines were the best way to reach a wide audience. In turn, it was the financial base of national advertising that enabled magazine publishers to lower cover prices to ten and fifteen cents, pulling in huge numbers of readers from the swelling U.S. population and thus creating the broad consumer base corporate interests needed. In its new alliance with American manufacturers, magazine publishing became, in fact, two businesses: that of selling magazines to readers and that of selling readers to advertisers.”Carolyn Kitch, The Girl on the Magazine Cover
Covers and Commodification
(slide) In contrast to elite magazines – intellectual rather than visual appeal – content over appearance (literally) –cover design same each week – contrast to branded masthead and ever-changing design – link to last week on branding…
3. “The Saturday Evening Post’s covers became what might be called the most visible token of the magazine. Unmistakable, the covers of the Post became a weekly symbol of its presence, its longevity, its vast circulation. No clearer index of the self-assurance of the magazine can be seen than the way in which the cover art was allowed to intrude on the title itself. In the earliest years, the title was set off on the top of the page, surrounded by a heavy line. … Over time, some art blocked out part of the magazine title itself until, by the late 1920s and early 1930s, this device had become commonplace. Eventually the cover itself, particularly when it was illustrated by an artist as familiar as Rockwell or Leyendecker, rather than the name of the magazine, became the sign of the Post.” Jan Cohn, Covers of the Saturday Evening Post (New York: Smithmark, 1998)
Magazines as brands – as having clear and distinct identities – slightly different content – slightly different world view… eg (newsstand)
Identity also established by contributors – cover artists signed exclusive contracts/ writers discouraged from appearing elsewhere – notion of ‘celebrity’ – develops through early C20th – famous writers’ names and stories Stephen Crane (McClure’s) Jack London, Fitzgerald (Post) – used to sell magazine – suggest a particular style/agenda milieu – London progressive era reform, Fitzgerald Jazz Age decadence… (Ohmann discusses – McClure’s as emphasising
Exist as a commodity – mark of status
Sense of identity runs through, unites, dictates content – that as Ohmann observes is split into departments like a store – branding through familiarity/difference – eg Post in 1900-1910s doesn’t have a contents page – instead, layout remains fixed week after week
(Blank slide)
Reflection v Construction
(shapes habitual audiences)
Key point – regarding idea of ‘reflection’ v ‘construction’ – came up in seminar discussion last week – idea that adverts and media imagery ‘reflect’ the society in which they appear
4. “Most scholars today are wary of … "the reflection hypothesis" in which "the mass media reflect dominant societal values." They caution that media imagery—including … ‘news’ reporting—is prescriptive rather than descriptive and that much is left out of the picture of American life they paint. In one of the first scholarly historical works on stereotypes of ideal womanhood, Mary P. Ryan warned that such images ‘must not be confused . . . with the actual life experience of women.’” Carolyn Kitch, The Girl on the Magazine Cover (in library + intro available via Portal link)
Reflection =
(1) a realistic representation of how things are…
Exemplified by 1954 Post claim that magazine’s covers provided a history of everyday American life – selective: everyone lives in a small town with no black people where poverty is restricted to picturesque tramps– aspirational element/middle-ground
(2) that they show a idealised vision of the world as people would like it to be…
How can we know where desires originate? - Subconscious desires - ‘tapping in to’ paradigm
Still casts media as (relatively) benign, passive – rather than proactive…
Construction
media, advertising etc play causal role in establishing desires/ideals etc
Familiar to anyone who’s done media studies at any level – complex debate
Added significance in period we are focussing on as:
- point at which media is developing reach and capacity to have major influence
- professionalisation of advertising/journalism raising stakes in more sophisticated manipulation
- in a period of rapid social change where identities/perceptions are not ‘fixed’ great potential for ‘constructing’/ ‘forming’ through media
This doesn’t have to mean that we adopt the ‘top down’ model in which powerful media manipulators dictate how people think – rather we might suggest a model of active exchange and dialogue that falls somewhere between passive ‘reflection’ and all-powerful ‘imposition’ by the media
Seeing culture in this way taking on ideas of
Important theorist Antonio Gramsci – his notion of “hegemony”: process by which dominant/powerful groups within society maintain control – not necessarily by imposing their will directly but by shaping the language the population speaks, their ideas, discourse etc – a process in which media in various forms has a key role:
5. “The theory of hegemony holds that the capitalist ruling class, in gaining control of production, also comes to dominate most major institutions, from legal to military to cultural. In this way it defines the situations within which all people live their lives, and sets limits to the possible – or at least plausible choices they can make, relations they can enter into, ideas they can have. In other words, the capitalist version of reality saturates the common sense (Gramsci’s term) and daily activity of all classes. The ruling class thus dominates the others quite systematically, yet its domination works through means that are often indirect and even unintentional. To be sure, it means to keep society as a field open to its project of cultivation, and has the power to do so through direct coercion up to a point. But it prefers not to, and usually does not. For one thing, the legitimacy of the social order in the eyes of subordinate classes depends on their belief that they are free and that their institutions – including the media – are open (and most members of the bourgeoisie themselves share this belief). Thus the hegemonic process, when it is working well, is a system of rule that depends on widespread, active consent more than on force or manipulation.” Richard Ohmann, Selling Culture
Powerful way of reading magazines – shapes Ohmann’s work – and Jan Cohn:
6. George Horace Lorimer (editor of Saturday Evening Post, 1899-1937) “set out to create America in and through the pages of the Saturday Evening Post. Week after week he crafted the issues of his magazines as an image, an idea, a construct of American for his readers to share, a model against which they could shape their lives. … For over a quarter of a century the Post was unrivaled in codifying the ground rules that explained and defined Americanism.” Jan Cohn, Creating America: George Horace Lorimer and the Saturday Evening Post
Gradually – then – without having a manifesto or a great deal of political content – Lorimer establishes an ideological position through his magazine – two senses to idea of “creating the mass audience” 1) creating desire for product in population 2) influencing/forming/shaping the way that audience think…
Gradual/non-explicit process – central to ways mass culture commonly read
In seminar reading Ohmann discusses in detail role of magazines in establishing class identities – I want to focus on examples less directly linked to capitalism/economic power – more to male power and domination of media production - to think through mass media processes:
Stereotypes and Gender Identity
Discussed with reference to example of gender stereotypes developed in period…
(Slide) talk through re Stephens and Kitsch
“In one of the first scholarly historical works on stereotypes of ideal womanhood, Mary P. Ryan warned that such images ‘must not be confused . . . with the actual life experience of women.’” (Stephens not nec. Agent of repression – just part of system)
Term stereotype derives from early printing process for stamping printing a single image on repeated occasions – frequency, repetition of mass culture – process occurs -
First used in current meaning by;
7. “For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture.” Walter Lippman, Public Opinion 1922
Fits into idea of cultural work – popular culture helping people assimilate into modern conditions – Ohmann: “fix their bearings in the fluid social space of that moment”
Powerful in terms of creating/establishing worldview:
8. “Stereotyping … attempts to maintain [existing] structures as they are, or to realign them in the face of a perceived threat. The comfort of inflexibility which stereotypes provide reinforces the conviction that existing relations of power are necessary and fixed.” Michael Pickering, Stereotyping: The Politics of Representation
Kitch describes images of women n magazine covers as first mass-market stereotype:
traces the development of images of women during late C19th and early C20th from “true womanhood” through “American Girl” to “new Woman”
True womanhood
Domesticity, child-raising, private sphere, supporting husband
The American Girl examples:
9. “the woman as image was one of the era’s dominant cultural tics. . . . However masculine the political and commercial activities that controlled ‘the main world,’ the images dominating the turn-of-the-century imagination were variations on the figure of the young American woman and permutations of the type of the American Girl." Martha Banta, Imaging American Women:Idea and Ideals in Cultural History (New York:Columbia University Press,1987) E176.4.B2
Whereas Stephens shows Victorian ‘true woman’
(Slide)(Evelyn Nesbit – models for Gibson and becomes famous as a Gibson girl – early celebrity as then involved in Stanford White murder trial – features as a character in Ragtime: example of early ‘celebrity’ fame/notoriety/scandal – theme explored by Doctorow – magazines and newspapers create context for this kind of ‘career’)
Can be seen as more independent female image – or as registering coldness/detachment – male anxieties… (Gibson’ technique)
Construction of feminine beauty (Bignall)
(Slide)College Girl
Read in connection to earlier Gibson Girls conservative image – has gone to college but hasn’t really changed…
Think back to point about “stereotyping attempts to deny any flexible thinking within categories” – could say that this discourse ‘fixes’/makes inflexible idea of woman as anything other than ‘image’/ideal – by overlapping Gibson girl with College Girl – transfers meaning
Accumulation of complex meaning within simple signs – relates back to last week’s discussion about the difficulty of ‘decoding’ advertising images…
(Slide) new woman – registers feminist interventions - develops
(empowered woman with man as playthings – again plays on doubling suggested in Gibson girl between independent/empowered vs detached/cold/manipulative
10. “Viewed over time, the New Woman offers a study in iconology. As a cultural construct, she conveyed opportunities for upward social and economic mobility while she also embodied fears about downward mobility, immigration, and the urbanization and corporatization of the lives of white American men. And she conveyed new social, political, and economic possibilities for womanhood. At many historical moments, she seemed merely to "mirror" what was happening in society. Yet she (and the visions of masculinity that accompanied her) also served as a model for that society and as a cultural commentator through whom certain ideals came to seem ‘natural’ in real life.” Carolyn Kitch, Girl on the Magazine Cover
(Slide) Other publications – not for mass audiences – find alternative visual imagery for ‘new woman’
Men’s studies: ‘crisis in masculinity’
Michael Kimmel's belief that—even while
11. “Masculinity and femininity are relational constructs [and] the definition of either depends on the definition of the other … definitions of masculinity are historically reactive to changing definitions of femininity.”
Prendergast – like Kitch – traces shift from “Victorian masculinity to modern masculinity” –
Getting away from top-down/negative imposition model – adverts and mass media could be seen to offer men a more varied range of possible models for masculinity – consumer capitalism not necessarily a bad thing…
Acknowledges that this has often been understood as ‘tragic’ loss of Emersonian self-reliance, Riesman inner directed – adverts and media in part to blame for making men superficial, interested in appearances, concerned with how others see them – but this is not necessarily bad:
12. “As men increasingly came to work in large, bureaucratic corporations rather than small shops; as they sought leisure in large, impersonal cities rather than in small towns; and as they viewed the world through mass-circulation magazines rather than local newspapers, they began to devise new ways to think about their identity as men. The masculinity that evolved alongside this modern culture came to emphasize personality, sexuality, self-realization, and a fascination with appearances, all traits that made men well suited to participate in the social and economic institutions of the period.” Tom Pendergast, Creating the Modern Man : American Magazines & Consumer Culture, 1900-1950 – e-resource