Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 30
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Popular Culture Review
if a topic arouses sufficient interest (for example, Take a Break had a campaign to
promote breastfeeding in public places). Readers are apparently directing the
magazine by the volume of their interest and their written responses to certain
topics which originate from other readers.
Women’s weekly magazine readers supply material and respond to the stories
and letters. In turn, the magazine staff present themselves as similar to their readers.
Nowhere is this more emphasised than in Take a Break, where journalists join in
with the true life trend to relate their own experiences and present them in the
formats usually reserved for readers. For example, the health editor of Take a Break
describes her laser treatment to correct short sight in the My Operation slot (January
1995). Both journalists and readers write about their holiday experiences,
accompanied by photographs. Readers and journalists take part in makeovers,
fashion shoots and try out new diets. Some readers recognise this lack of distance
between themselves and the magazine staff and appreciate the informality this
affords the magazine and how it enables readers to be more involved, at least in
terms of representation. The inclusion of readers in the fashion pages allows other
readers to relate comfortably to the various ages, sizes and shapes of ordinary
women (something rarely seen in the upmarket monthlies). Readers appear to be
dictating their needs, through the magazine pages, for more realistic images of
women. The effect of these representations, plus the discreet editing of true life
stories and other reader material, is to imply that