Research From City Pictorial On The Consumption Guidance Toward "the Masses"

City Pictorial was republished in1999. It is a urban lifestyle magazine, which wasestablished early and keeps developing at a rapid rate. It impresses readers due to itsfresh and sensible features. It was once renowned as“Petty Magazine” and"Fashion-Forward Magazine." Since its inception, it appeals to many young readers byvirtue of its stylized subject matters and story angles, unique theatrical tone, andespecially the guidance for new lifestyles and urban consumption.2012is the13thanniversary of City Pictorial and also its republication year.The arrival of the new media age facilitates the integration of paper media and newmedia and increases the competition of the media of the same kind as well. For papermedia, in order to gain competitiveness, it needs to enlarge audience, develops fromminority to the masses, and finds a more reasonable way for commercial operation. Thispaper takes City Pictorial as an example. It starts from the guidance of paper media toconsumption and analyzes the revised contents in detail, which is followed by exploringthe combination of consumption guidance,readers’needs and commercial appeals. It aimsto seek a new direction for development so that it better grasps and evaluates the way thatperiodicals, especially the urban lifestyle information magazines, search for self-changeand development under the changing environment of new media and consumptionconcept. This paper is divided into the following sections:The introduction section proposes the purpose of this thesis and further states theaim and significance of this research. This part also summarizes the current academicstudy towards City Pictorial and figures out the research methods.Chapter One provides readers with explanations about concepts of consumer society andconsumer culture. Then it discusses the interaction between media and consumer culture.Chapter Two briefly states several major revision phases since its inception andoutlines the processes and significance of this revision. This chapter puts an emphasis onthe demand aspect from minority to the masses and the analysis of the motivation forrevision.Chapter Three is the focus of this thesis. It presents how City Pictorial guidesconsumption through quantitative and qualitative researches. It exhaustively analyzes its guidance to consumption and presentation features from the external manifestation to thecontents of the text.Chapter Four mainly analyzes the contents of advertisement of City Pictorial, whichbegins with the different types of its manifestation, contents and nature. In addition, thischapter analyzes the guidance of its advertisement towards consumption after therevision.The conclusion section summarizes certain enlightenments and reflections since itsrevision.