Seiten des Wohnens

Abstract

Living magazines are a medium that has developed into an independent genre since the 19th century and assumed a key role in the creation of living and perceptions on living. They are ideals narrating which sides of living are good, correct and beautiful for a permanently improvable and finally happy life. In their educational intent they present themselves in an individualising fashion that is entertaining, integrative and animating and therefore aims for an imaginative and real reaction of their readership. The magazine is a specific display, a sorted and serialised collection of images and texts, image and text types. Living magazines are no media arrangement aligned to linear reception - the combination of columns, reports, photo galleries, advertisements etc. allows non-linear reading. Power and dominance are inherent to the interdependence of the discourse-hegemonial space of living magazines with self-technical processes of the modern subject, though the need for action and agency is always included.