A Fashionable discourse: Oyster and the magazine reader

The world of magazines can range from serious publications such as Time or Australia's The Monthly, to the often trivialised work of New Idea, Woman's Day and Who Magazine. As a media text they are often disregarded as purely advertising, carriers for junk or soft journalism that doesn't offer very much more than entertainment or pleasure. It is easy to see why magazines are often disregarded as credible media texts. The saturation of celebrity discourse that has emerged over the past decade means that we no longer associate many publications with 'serious' issues such as politics, current affairs and international stories. On this basis society decides that magazines are not to be taken too seriously.