Magazine Lecture: RESPONSE

Before listening to this lecture I thought that I already knew everything there was to know about magazines. I was obviously wrong because NOW I know quite a bit about magazines and their background.


During this lecture I learned all about the 5 key innovations of magazines and I learned about how magazines had a huge impact on journalism in the U.S. in the 19th/20th century. So, I found out that serialized fiction, personality profiles, long form/investigative journalism, photo journalism, and the first national medium are the key innovations of magazines. I not only learned that these are the key innovations, but I also learned why each one of them is important and I learned how each one applies to magazines.


After learning about the key innovations of magazines, I have come to the conclusion that the MOST important innovation was that magazines were the first national medium. I would say that that is the most important innovation because it really had an impact on the U.S. at that time and it took journalism to a whole new level. Before magazines, there was no unity when it came to the nation's identity and culture. Every city was independent for the most part and journalism was completely on a local scale rather than a whole nation-wide scale.


Since at that time most of the U.S. was made up of migrants and people from other countries, there were many different cultures and that meant that the U.S. didn't have any unity or a common culture. But once magazines came out, people from all across the country had something in common and they could all start identifying with the same things. So because magazines were the first national medium, our country could start being more united and independent.


I can confidently say that after listening to the magazines lecture in class, I know all about the key innovations of magazines and about their basic background. (For example, I learned about Franklin’s first General Magazine in 1741 and the Postal Act of 1879.) Before this lecture I was completely unaware of the history of magazines and their key innovations, but now I fully understand that they had a very large impact on journalism and the United States in the 19th/20th century.