This article considers the ways in which lifestyle media during the 1980s expressed a longing for a particular form of social life that was passing as neoliberalism presented increasingly consumer-oriented and individualistic modes of life. It frames Martha Stewart’s lifestyle books, and other lifestyle television programs in the 1980s, as predecessors of the logic of the makeover and reality programming discussed by current media scholars. In particular, Stewart’s first two books, Entertaining (1982) and Quick Cook (1983), substituted displays of laborious domesticity and material abundance for lived social relations. The article, therefore, anchors contemporary discussions of lifestyle television and neoliberalism with a historical investigation of how neoliberalism was articulated to lifestyle and came to dominate media texts, and relatedly social life, in the 1980s.

In 1975, a group of lesbian feminist separatists in Austin, Texas, made history by publishing a small newsletter named Goodbye to All That. The collective of women assembled one of the earliest known lesbian feminist publications in Texas to challenge patriarchy in the left and gay rights movements. This textual analysis guided by standpoint feminist theory provides a historical understanding of how a segment of second-wave lesbian feminists—physically removed from gay- and lesbian-friendly urban centers—utilized a newsletter to communicate with each other, at a time when mainstream media ignored their unique issues. When compared with feminist publications outside of the South, Goodbye to All That adopted a unique tone that could be partially influenced by its cultural heritage.

Popular films continue to replace history courses as the source of truth with regard to important events or eras. 300, in its interpretation of the Battle of Thermopylae, based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, is an example of this trend. Rather than adhering to the presented historical facts of the event, 300 offers a hyperreal interpretation of the battle and the societies that surrounded it, infusing contemporary hegemonic ideologies regarding sexuality, classism, and race into a mediated discourse that presents the spectacle of the film as reality. This essay examines the narratives that are presented within the film, paying particular attention to how each narrative moves away from historical documentation and toward a hyperreality that glorifies violence, misogyny, and domination. How these narratives can potentially become the historical reality that individuals internalize is of particular concern here.

A decade ago, JCI marked its 30th anniversary with a tracing of mastheads (McLuskie, 2004) once manifesto-like in character, but less so as the journal moved through its first three decades. Now, at its 40th year, the word “Inquiry” in the journal’s title still announces an orientation that aims beyond method. Whether discussing the field and its problems or offering alternative modes of inquiry, JCI has a reputation as a space for fresh academic air (more on the history, importance, and perennial vulnerability of that reputation in a moment). But the significance held by mastheads in 2004 is different in the online world of 2014, as JCI publisher Sage adapts with the rest of the publishing industry to garner and speed circulation. The proclamation of identity that came from mastheads is now more loudly proclaimed outside the Journal’s printed pages. Scholarly production and consumption by the 2010s is seen through the world’s increasingly webbed libraries, also offering shorthands—“shortcuts,” these days—and gatekeeping—“portals,” these days—to guide the searching scholar whose work gets done, in the best of circumstances, on the run to the rare spaces of reflection. Multiple titles of articles await, the journal title itself a subject matter hash tag used to point out landings. Web pages for the journals themselves recommend articles, organized for the searcher into an academic journal’s alleged best hits. If those hits do not register the journal’s identity, they do register intrajournal popularity in terms of recency. They also help— likely the opposite of “help”—shape what counts in an academic world. Journal of Communication Inquiry 2014, Vol. 38(2) 90–94 ! The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0196859914525092 jci.sagepub.com

This article analyzes customer reviews of Fareed Zakaria’s best-selling book, The Post-American World posted on Amazon.com . Zakaria’s book explores the emergence of a new world order in which the “rise of the rest,” particularly China and India, threatens the geopolitical dominance of the United States. Drawing on reception studies of print culture, debates over the virtual public sphere, and sponsorship of literacy, our article’s textual analysis of 281 customer reviews offers a window into audience reactions to this public intellectual’s deliberations on the beginning of a possible decentering of America in certain realms of globalization. Our analysis of consumer citizenship in Amazon.com ’s reviewer space identifies three dominant frameworks or “horizons of expectations” that structured interpretations of The Post-American World: readers’ framing of the book as a tool to foster enlightened citizenship, reviewers’ affective rhetoric of nation building, and the impact of Zakaria’s status as an immigrant intellectual on readers’ responses.

This study assessed the inclusiveness of New York Times coverage prior to the 2012 presidential election as it relates to the lived experiences of African American voters. The study specifically asked, does the newspaper include substantive information about African American voters, the most pressing social justice concerns facing Black communities, and African American voices? The sampled news discourse is compared to the defining issues for the 21st century identified by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): racial disparity, economic disparity, health care disparity, education disparity, voter empowerment, and criminal justice. Findings reveal a paucity of coverage about African American voters in 2011. Although most of the articles discussed at least one social justice issue, when the scant coverage is considered, it becomes clear that the attention these issues received was severely lacking. African American voice was also seriously underrepresented.

In the 1940s, the advertising agency, N.W. Ayer, created for then-client, DeBeers Consolidated Mines, a campaign that wedded the values of patriotism, American citizenship, and luxury consumerism through advertising copy. The text and accompanying images touted what they termed “Fighting Diamonds.” While most American military and labor propaganda of World War II encouraged civilians to sacrifice, ration, and save, “Fighting Diamonds” ads assured would-be buyers that their wartime gemstone diamond and jewelry splurges supported the Allied Forces. This article examines the connections between American military recruitment history and DeBeers’ “Fighting Diamond” advertisements via a series of archival materials from the N.W. Ayer and Son Advertising Agency Records at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Archives Center. I argue that “Fighting Diamonds” were part of a growing trend within advertisement propaganda that positioned American political participation and civic duties increasingly as consumer decisions.