ABSTRACT
Perhaps even more than newspapers, which are geographically limited, and the broadcast media, which are largely derivative—amplifying rather than creating social and cultural trends—magazines reflect and shape their times. In the ’50s, the glossy photographs of Life and Look defined a new era of American abundance. In the ’70s, as the political activism of the ’60s gave way to the “me decade,” city and regional magazines such as New York extolled passions for politics and consumer goods. In the ’90s, a decade defined by the globalization of commerce and communication, magazines are now in the middle of a new evolution, one distinguished by niche marketing and fertile interaction between print media and the World Wide Web. Where these latest developments will take us is not entirely clear, but it is certain that magazines will both capitalize on and transcend their own recent history.
