Editorial process of a Magazine

In order for you to understand how the editorial process of a regular magazine works, first I have to explain what a magazine is.  Yes, I know, it probably sounds a little bit obvious, and maybe everyone has a stack of old magazines lying around their houses somewhere, and whether you are walking past a newsstand in the streets or sitting in the doctor´s consulting room, you are going to be tempted to pick up a magazine and look through the pages.  Magazines are everywhere, but what are they exactly?  That´s the question I want to explain.

A magazine is a periodical (usually monthly or weekly) and popular publication (in some cases without a non-academic audience), that provides people with current information on a broad range of topics like articles, stories, reviews, pictures, etc.  The paper used in almost every magazines is glossy and with photographs and advertising printed on it.  The themes included can be:  sports, fashion, tourism, sex, humor, politics, cultural, etc.  Magazines are published for a general or mass market to promote those groups services or products.

Magazines are different from newspapers in some many aspects and characteristics:

àSize: Newspapers are larger than magazines.  A magazine tends to have a book type size.

àAppearance: Newspapers tend to appear colorless than magazines.  Magazine´s appearances or looks tend to give light or emphasis to the given subject matter.

àStyle: The newspaper focuses more of what is needed:  fixed and straight to the point, while magazines on the other hand, tend to have freestyle in the sense.

àReadability: A newspapers reader is mostly exposed on facts and figures that are delivered or written in a straight manner and a magazine reader is inclined to a more relaxed, free, artistic and personalized flow of information. 

àContent: The information given in a newspaper is based on facts that are fresh and written as it happens and where it happens.  Magazine´s content is different in the sense that those touches on just a specific subject matter.

            However, magazines are not just limited to the concept of printing them, they also involve a tedious process before it even reaches the newsstands, and after knowing all that I have mentioned before, know we can delve in the function and work of the editorial process.

            The first step you have to acquire is to identify and establish your target profile (consumer).  With this, you are surely going to define your audience in order to give your magazine a very specific style that communicates what you are demanding to reach.  If it helps, you can begin by trying to imagine and describe a person who fits in your ideal profile of consumer:  gender, age, socioeconomic level, education, purchasing power, the car that the person owns and his personality.

            Then, the second step is to define the style of the magazine (editorial line).  I consider that this is the most important step of the process, because with this factor, the magazine is going to start taking a definition and a status.  This, basically, is going to represent and reflect the ideas, observations, points of view and opinions of the editor/editors of the magazine.

            When you have passed by the two steps mentioned before, there comes the third step.  Creating and forming your working team.  Delegating responsibilities is very important in order to have efficiency.  It is important that your work team is constituted with specialized and skilled people because it will make your magazine works better.

            à Editor in chief: They are the head of the whole magazine.  The editor in chief is most likely to be concerned with the overall product that the magazine presents, and may also be focused on the business dealings of the magazine.  Therefore, they are not likely to work with queries.  Every other member of the magazine have to report him/her everything and the editor in chief is the one who takes the final decisions.

àArticles editor:  This person is directly in charge of content, and may be one to field queries.

àReporters:  They are the persons who wrote the articles, columns, chronicles, reviews, etc.

àPhotographers:  They took the pictures that correspond to each written publication.

àLayout:  They are in charge of the whole aesthetic visual design of the magazine.  They make the magazine look pretty and with order.

            Also is very important for magazine publishers to adopt a style, oftentimes a format which makes the magazine unique for a specific publishing company, it may be for the writing style of the reporters or for the layout design and the editorial staff will copy edit to ensure that the work matches the style and grammatical requirements of the market. 

And the last step in the editorial process is the marketing and distribution;  this releases the magazine to our main and objective market (consumer).  So every time you pick up a magazine that catches your attention, keep in mind that behind it there is a whole big group of people who make it possible.

Mass media in Mexico

Mexican mass media is a very complex and also interesting topic to mention about, ever since it was developed, nowadays in our country, the culture and society are completely transformed.  The traditional method consisting in communicate something, a message, news, articles, etc., has changed radically and faster than we could ever imagined.

Content and themes have also been distorted.  Unfortunately in some cases the essence of the professional communication act has been depleted, now the media emit messages in a very raw way.  Government plays a very important role too, since many of the information that is published, in some way approves or goes against some politic beliefs.

Another important aspect that we must not forget about is the terrible situation that our country is suffering.  Communicologists, journalists, reporters, speakers must take care about the way that they say things in television, newspapers, radio, magazines, etc.  We must keep in mind that every message has their own interpretation and it could be a wrong one.

One of the media that has the most important impact in the society is the internet.  The access to the information that is posted there is very easy to get.  People are consuming more the internet content (which has no support or veracity) than books or scientific magazines with reliable information.  Also it is important to mention that this monstrous media is displacing other information sources like books, magazines, even the newspapers (which are destined to disappear in a matter of few years).

I think that mexican mass media should take more care on the contents.  Our society has become very susceptible, therefore they will eventually believe everything they get to see on television adds, or read on the newspaper.  Media has not only been there to satisfy some kind of human needs, it has also been creating new ones.

The way the 21st century communicates today.

To discuss this theme it is important to define first what Social Networking is.  This big phenomenon is defined as the grouping of individuals into specific groups.  Although social networking is possible in person, especially in universities, high schools, the workplace, etc., but it is most popular online.  The topics presented are as varied and rich as the story of our world.

When it comes to online social networking, the social sites are used.  Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users.  Depending on the profile of the website, the members share common interests in different topics.  Once you form part of a social site you can socialize with the other users, that include reading his profile pages or even contact them.

As mentioned before, social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or organizations together.  While there are a number of social networking websites that focus on particular interests, there are others that do not.  The websites without a main focus are often referred to as typical social networking websites and usually have open memberships.  This means that anyone can become a part of it as a member, no matter what their hobbies, beliefs, or views are.  However, once you are inside this big an varied online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends and eliminate members that do not share common interests or goals.

There are obviously many dangers associated with social networking.  The most prevalent danger involves online individuals who claim to be someone that they really are not.  Like in the real life, danger is presented by networking online and you are advised to proceed with caution.

By being aware of your cyber surroundings and who you are talking to, you should be able to safely enjoy social networking online too.  Just use common sense and listen to your inner voice;  it will tell you when something doesn't feel right about the online conversations taking place.

The pro­lif­er­a­tion of this types of media have shown that peo­ple love to share their opin­ion.  The pro­lif­er­a­tion of the open source move­ment shows that some peo­ple love to share their exper­tise.  There is a deeply rooted need among human beings to share, whether it is informa­tion or opin­ions.  Social net­works appeal to the altru­is­tic side of peo­ple by allow­ing them to share their con­nec­tion and intro­duce friends to other friends.

Most of all, though, human beings are social crea­tures.  As such, the root of all suc­cess from social net­work­ing sites is based on a need to con­nect and expand con­nec­tions.  For most of his­tory, con­nec­tions were largely lim­ited by geo­graph­i­cal or eco­nomic considerations.  The differences is that social net­works allow peo­ple to expand their connections around their inter­ests.

Once you are well informed and comfortable with your findings, you can begin your search from hundreds of networks you can join. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search.  Your search will surely return a number of results:  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Orkud, BeautifulPeople, and many more.