TV sitcoms must address an aspect of daily life a multitude of viewers can enjoy.
This is why, in 1997, the television show “Just Shoot Me” premiered with David Spade and Laura San Giacomo, among others. It was a niche in untouched territory. Few sitcoms or films had highlighted the world inside the magazine industry. Who really cared about it? Viewers didn’t seem to. Now the opposite seems true as magazine-themed entertainment abounds.
It’s absolutely horrendous.
I have thumbed glossies for as long as I can remember – seriously. Though teen-aimed publications with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, more commonly coined JTT, wooing young girls (and boys) struck my fancy, I nevertheless adored magazines. This continued through late elementary and middle school as I begged my mom if I could read her one of Seventeen’s monthly “Say Anything” stories, something along the lines of a zit-faced adolescent walking in on her parents. And in high school, I graduated to fashion and news mags.
I always knew loads of my peers thought similarly about magazines. Who wouldn’t want to write for one? But now, people who once read glossies for simple entertainment and knowledge want to work for them, too.
Recent magazine-inspired television and films have reached an all-time high.
“Miss Seventeen,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Ugly Betty,” “I’m From Rolling Stone” and “Dirt” all portray a different element of the industry, the last four all debuting since spring term finals. Salma Hayek’s “Ugly Betty” and “The Devil Wears Prada” both snagged Golden Globes. Pop culture consumers love watching life at magazines. But is that what they are really watching?
I have to say “The Devil Wears Prada” resonated a convoluted blend of fear, disgust and envy inside me because of its accuracy. And though “I’m From Rolling Stone” markets itself as a reality TV show, MTV likes to claim reality when it’s everything but.
These shows over-glamorize the magazine industry and will probably make me jobless. Think about it. Young girls flocked to “The Devil Wears Prada” this summer and immediately became seduced by the galaxy inside Runway magazine and its designer-clad Clackers. “I’m From Rolling Stone” gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the world’s most celebrated music publication. This is enticing for people to watch; magazines represent huge sources of power and money. Each wields an influence on its readers, advertising which fishing poles, gardening tools or winter coats they should buy, where they should vacation or where they should surf and kayak. Until recently, non-industry insiders couldn’t see the creative, demanding processes required to produce a magazine.
But what about me and all of the Generation Y writers, editors, photographers and designers who envisioned working at magazines long before Hollywood producers realized they could use them to turn a profit?
While newspaper circulations plummet and staffers get laid off, magazines flourish. And what happens to the futures of students sending their resumes to Condé Nast or Time Inc.? The competition will be even stiffer – the pay probably lower – and the editors tougher, for they became allured to the industry after seeing Courtney Cox’s dark, sinister office at Dirt magazine.
Is reality TV a writer’s new resume builder?
Daily Emerald
January 31, 2007
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