The Narrative of Core Traditional Values in Reiman Magazines

Abstract

Reiman Publications represent a singular model—80% of content is submitted by readers and the magazines are ad-free. This study places the magazines within the broader American cultural landscape, showing how the role of suburban middle-class white women is tied to traditional values, religion, and a valorization of country taste as “authentic” expression. Through depth interviews, close textual reading, and narrative and rhetorical analysis, the study demonstrates how an imagined community is constructed, depicts readers' shared social space, and suggests how the magazines frame and build core values, binding readers into a community by voicing a shared lifestyle and self-image.

Participatory Innovation

“…5 In another particularly relevant study, Webb examined how Reiman magazines functioned as a shared social space for suburban middle-class white women, "binding readers into a community by voicing a shared lifestyle and self-image." 6 In line with the reader-centered model of Reiman publications, the magazines relied heavily on contributions submitted by its readers, and Webb suggests that this participatory engagement appears to stimulate reader agency and strengthen feelings of belonging and identification. 7 Henry Jenkins defines a participatory culture as one which has "relatively low barriers" to expression and engagement, "strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others," "some type of informal mentorship," and members who "believe that their contributions matter" and "feel some degree of social connection with one another."…”

Journalism as an Advocacy Tool: Negotiating Boundaries of Professionalism in the 20th-Century American Environmental Movement

“…The archives contain organizational documents such as internal memos, letters between executives and members, annual reports, budgets, committee reports, press clippings, planning documents, and more. Each archive contains documents spanning the 20th century, offering an unprecedented opportunity for a longitudinal view into how these organizations viewed the role of their publications before, during, and after the explosion of public interest in the environment in the 1960s, and particularly how they used their own media production via magazines to build and shape the “imagined community” (Tarrow, 2011; Webb, 2006) of their supporters. These materials were organized into cartons loosely arranged by date, topic, or individual name and containing hundreds of documents apiece.…”

Expression of Culture in the Amish Press

“…Anderson, 1983, p. 35) Scholars have conceptualized the mediation of imagined community as the expression of a shared social space (Funk, 2012;Gupta & Ferguson, 1992;J. Jenkins, 2016) or as a common set of values developed out of an affinity for certain types of journalistic or literary work (Delgado, 1998;Dollase, 2003;Johanningsmeier, 2004;Webb, 2006). Groups viewed as outsiders have used community media to create functional effective communities, expressing shared identity and combating oppression and stereotypes in a shared site of ideological struggle (Budarick & King, 2008;Novek, 2005;Rose, 1996).…”

“…7 Although Nolt’s observations are insightful, he offers little explanation of just how The Budget and Die Botschaft go about establishing the social norms that promote Old Order life over more liberal ideals. Other scholars who use Anderson’s work have been similarly criticized; although imagined communities are frequently discussed in academic literature, comparatively little attention is paid to how these are formed (Webb, 2006). By exploring The Budget , this study contributes to a greater understanding of how niche and community media contribute to the formation, maintenance, and evolution of imagined communities.…”