COMM 353 b/log 2nd week: Bulldog Bytes ... what's in a name?

mag·a·zine ... n. 1. A periodical containing a collection of articles, stories, pictures, or other features.
2. A television program that presents a variety of topics, usually on current events, in a format that often includes interviews and commentary. 3. a. A place where goods are stored, especially a building in a fort or a storeroom on a warship where ammunition is kept. b. The contents of a storehouse, especially a stock of ammunition. 4. a. A compartment in some types of firearms, often a small detachable box, in which cartridges are held to be fed into the firing chamber. b. A compartment in a camera in which rolls or cartridges of film are held for feeding through the exposure mechanism. c. Any of various compartments attached to machines, used for storing or supplying necessary material.American Heritage Dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/magazine

We're off to a better start in COMM 353 than I'd expected, and I expected it to be good. As I said the first day, you come well recommended by other faculty and I know some of you from my other classes. I like the working title you chose for the 'zine, and - more important, I think - I like the way you went about choosing it. (I'm saying "you" here because I think I should try to stay out of creative decisions.) I liked the way the discussion went from "bark" to "bite" to "byte," so we can't really say the name was suggested by any one person - it was a group initiative as you riffed off of the first idea and tried out different combinations.

Some of my best decisions have been like that, and they haven't really been mine.

Which may be why they were so good!

(I also like the idea of a magazine as a "small detachable box" full of ammunition. But that's probably because I'm a recovering political junkie, and you can safely ignore it.)

Where should we go from here? What should we do in class Thursday? I've got two things in mind we ought to be doing now.

1. Let's keep filling in details on what we want to put in the magazine. Specific things you guys can contribute ... ideas about artwork, departments or sections, etc. Here's some language for an overall statement that might pull together some of the things you were talking about Tuesday:

... a magazine of the arts, current events, sports and student life."

See what you think of it. Or, better, take it and riff off of it and see if it leads you to something that none of us would have thought of without the group effort.

2. Let's look at other magazines, too. Especially on line. I would never, ever suggest that the youth of America as represented in my classes steal anything. Never, ever. But we can certainly look at other magazines and look for ideas we can use. I'm sure you've heard this: You can't copyright ideas. That's why professional writers keep a clip file of articles they can plunder for story ideas, thing they can adapt and make thier own. (At least it used to be a clip file back in the days of paper clips, or clippings. Now it's apt to be electronic - I do mine with hypertext links like this or this on my personal blog.) Sometimes it's known as a "swipe file" but I would never, ever tell my students to swipe anything.

As you know, I like The New Yorker, and there's some language on their website at http://www.newyorker.com/ about "the New Yorker's signature blend of the arts, entertainment and public affairs." (I'm quoting from memory here. The New Yorker's website isn't particularly easy to navigate, and I can never find the damn quote when I want it.) Even so, they do some things with standing headlines and "dingbats" (the word I use for little graphic elements to mark their departments). It's at least worth looking at.

In a day or two, I'll post a blog question on magazines you read that take the place of what The New Yorker did for my generation. But in the meantime, why don't we look at some of the magazines you read in class?

So Thursday afternoon let's surf around and and find some magazines that we might use as models. What departments do they have? Any other ideas for the "swipe file?" Start with magazines you already enjoy. They don't have to be literary, or college oriented. When you find one that's worth looking at, let me know it address and we can project it up on the screen.