Two journalists spoke Friday about the media's attempt to chronicle social change through articles and cover photographs.
Kathy Levanthol, publisher of Vanity Fair, and Chloe Breyer, founder of Who Cares, a magazine devoted to social activism, spoke to 30 students at a Senior Symposium panel Friday afternoon. Levanthol showed slides of Vanity Fair cover photos and discussed their role in documenting social change in the past 10 years.
She said the magazine's 1991cover of a naked and pregnant Demi Moore illustrated the desire of women in the 1990s to increase their public visibility while retaining their femininity.
With this cover, "Vanity Fair successfully chronicled a moment in history and set the world on its ear," Levanthol said.
One of Vanity Fair's purposes has been to "chronicle social change," over the years, Levanthol said.
"If you gave a martian a copy of Vanity Fair, that would be all he would need to get around - assuming he could speak English."
Levanthol also discussed a cover featuring Whoopie Goldberg lying in a bathtub of milk. She said this cover showed the increasing prominence of African-Americans in a white-dominated society.
She compared two covers of Elizabeth Taylor to illustrate the difference in perspective between the 1980s and the 1990s.
While a cover in the 1980s showed Taylor in a sparkling red evening gown and diamond earrings, one in the 1990s featured a cleavage shot of the actress holding a condom.
Levanthol also discussed how a cover story featuring television actress Rosanne Barr illustrated the "abuse excuse" chronicled in an accompanying article about Barr's experiences as an abused child.
"Vanity Fair does kick-start what people will be talking about," Levanthol said.
But Breyer emphasized the content of her magazine, rather than its presentation, as a vehicle for social change. She said Who Cares is "a news magazine about service and action" focusing on the "twenty-something" generation.
The mission of the magazine is not to chronicle accounts, but to inspire debate, she said.
Articles in Who Cares focus on how people in their 20s are becoming involved in their communities, Breyer said. The magazine also has an entrepreneurial section to provide its readers with the "tools for change."
After the speeches, audience members asked the two journalists about the role of advertising in their publications, specifically questioning the ethics of running ads whose content contradicted the message of a magazine's articles.
Breyer said Who Cares does not allow cigarette or alcohol advertising because "quite a few of our readers are under age."
But Levanthol said, "we see advertising like a billboard along the highway. You don't necessarily endorse the road you're driving on."
