ABSTRACT
This chapter examines consumer magazines through a research review and historical analysis. It explores research focusing on the interplay between magazines and consumer lifestyles—how magazines cover and often influence consumer lifestyles, as well as how consumer lifestyles influence the content in magazines. The chapter describes the symbolic aspect of magazines as artifacts and the evolution of their intellectual and literary content from the Antebellum period in the United States to the early twenty-first century. The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) in its code of ethics tries to prevent its members from going too far. ASME advises members to avoid compromising the reader experience. Consumers often seek reinvention through magazines. That is where some readers learn how to be: how to be better versions of themselves or how to be like the people who run or make magazines or appear on the pages.
