I ran across a recent blog post that looked back at one from 2011 on The Daily Kos.
Showing several examples of recent TIME covers, Kos highlighted the dramatic difference between the American covers, and the corresponding ones from the same weeks in the European, Asian and South Pacific editions. Several weeks of examples were given. See the whole slide show.
There’s nothing subtle going on here. To the extent that these weeks are a guide, we see that TIME has decided people in the rest of the world are more serious-minded than Americans. Foreigners get hard news. Americans’ penchant for “me” news, soft stuff, lifestyle features, is catered to without a shred of hesitation or shame.
It would be easy to blame TIME. But I think TIME knows what Americans want. If they didn’t have the research to back it up, they wouldn’t do anything this blatant. Would they?
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Americans are way to sensitive, say just about anything and someone’s going to get their feelings hurt.
I found this interesting article this afternoon, if you want Twitter follower numbers to increase just follow Obama and make them up. Hell make up nearly 20 million of them.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430875/Barack-Obama-19-5m-fake-Twitter-followers.html
I have no doubt that general interest-magazine circulation in the US can be correlated to the amount of soft news that these publications choose to run. You’re correct when you postulate that magazines like Time aren’t operating in a vacuum; it’s obvious they understand what sells. What’s irritating is when these same publications print articles about Americans’ lack of knowledge about world affairs. You can’t have it both ways.