In order to have ideas about media, you need to interact with media. You don’t need a degree in communications, and you certainly do not have to be Julia Allison.
Just pick up a magazine or newspaper and think about how you feel when you flip the pages, read the words, and skip over things that don’t interest you. Don’t just consume media; have a conversation with it.
I was reading Reason while eating my take-out dinner, and I had what Oprah would call an “Aha!” moment.
I thought about the things I love about print (magazines, in particular): holding a magazine; turning the pages; admiring the glossy, full-size images.
(Pictured at left: Actual piles of magazines in my parents’ house)
And I thought about the things I dislike about print: clutter; waste; advertisements (some ads are alright); pages of articles that don’t interest me; editorial choice; cost; not as instantaneous as online media.
I noticed that the latest issue of Reason arrived in the mail a few days ago, and I made a mental note to read it. I brought it to the table with my dinner, flipped to the index, and scanned the article summaries for something interesting. A piece about underage “sexting” caught my attention*.
I really enjoyed the article, but I finished my dinner when I finished reading. By that point, I had the idea to write this blog post and little interest in reading any other articles. Will I come back to this magazine? Was it a waste of paper and ink? Could I have found this same article online by searching for “sexting”? Did I need to discover it?
Is print dead? Is it really dead? Do we feel more comfortable holding a Kindle than we feel holding a magazine or newspaper? Is it easier to read content digitally? Would we ever give up the pleasure of holding and interacting with a paper publication?
What if we combined the things that are great about print media with the things that are great about online media?
If there’s one thing we know for sure about the Internet age, it’s that people are more confident with choice. They choose which websites to visit, which content to read and consume, and they can search for anything in an instant.
(Pictured at right: Making choices, by [n])
Why the heck would they want to read a magazine that’s filled with articles chosen for them? Because they’re too tired of making their own decisions.
We know that not everyone can be a writer. But what if everyone was an editor? What if everyone could choose what to include in their own magazine, and what if we made that possible for them? Would it matter if this magazine appeared in print or online? Would it matter then?
*“Sexting” has been the subject of a running joke in my house this past week. I made a joking Facebook status update about how CNN’s coverage of “sexting” has opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. My mom saw my laptop (opened to my Facebook profile page), assumed the worst about my update, and lectured me about the dangers of “sexting”, which she also heard about via CNN.
