Connecting through Inspiration
The magazine concept is also seen in the so-called news magazine television format-including Dateline,20/20,and,of course,60 Minutes.Veteran television producer Don Hewitt credits large mainstream magazines as a powerful inspiration in his invention of the 60 Minutes framework.Coffey(1993,p.26)notes that one of the primary distinguishing features of this venerable news magazine program is the notion of“mixing several stories in one format,the way Life and Look magazines did.”What Hewitt was looking for,in effect,was a formula of wonder and familiarity that would personalize the connection and break down the borders between medium and audience(Coffey,1993).
“I stole 60 Minutes from a lot of places,”Hewitt recalls.“There was a Life magazine on every coffee table in America,and I said that I want to put this on every television set in America.Life was the birth of a baby,Marilyn Monroe's closet,atomic energy,Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.It was everything.”(p.26)
Connecting through the Net
Increasingly,it is easy to see inter plays between magazines and other mediated communication systems.One obvious-and controversial-example is the corporate,disciplinary and technological marriage that resulted in AOL Time Warner.In addition,there are numerous examples of magazine inter plays with television-involving the likes of National Geographic,People,and Fortune.
It can also be argued that the Internet has gained considerably from the magazine.For one thing,many publications now have their own Internet sites,a point of some controversy,since publications are also often finding themselves in competition with their websites.
However,in a more basic sense,the configuration of the website itself resembles the magazine concept.Often there is a“cover”type page,and a home page that in effect serves a similar function to a“contents page.”The actual contents of websites are often broken into discrete units,directly analogous to sections or departments of a magazine.
While the Internet format has been increasingly conventionalized,some see an opportunity to combine technologies and hark back to a more traditional media format,that of the magazine.For example,two Internet services,Zinio and News Stand,have introduced downloadable periodicals,that,according to one source(Rae-Dupree,2002,p.71),“painstakingly replicate the‘dead tree'reading experience,and even try to improve on it.”
An advertisement in Business Week touts the publication's digital edition(January 20,2003,p.91).The ad promises that the digital edition will have the“same great content,same great design.”The headline emphasizes,“It's not just what you know,it's when you know it.”Connective implications.
An examination of the interactive and integrative dimensions of magazines suggests the complexity and richness of the magazine.When connectivity is assessed in a holistic sense,it is possible to see,through micro and macro linkages,the continuing potential of the magazine to span boundaries and exert a powerful influence in everyday life,and in the evolution of mediated communication.
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