I believe that certain magazines are icons of American culture. They have been around forever, and just about everyone has read them at one point in their life. Reader’s Digest is probably the best example.
I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t read Reader’s Digest. When I was in elementary school, I loved the humor sections and some of the true stories. As I grew older, my reading tastes changed, but there was always something in Reader’s Digest to interest me.
When I was eighteen years old, I married and moved with my husband to Egypt. In the three years I lived there, the thing I craved most was reading material. Every few months, my mother would send a care package, and invariably the box contained her back issues of Reader’s Digest. In those days, I read every page of every issue – often more than once. The magazine was a link to America and home.
While in Egypt, I taught English in a private language school. My students were not interested in conjugating verbs and working on spelling. They wanted to know about life outside of Egypt. Therefore, I tried to make a point of bringing in little bits of American culture as often as possible. Often, that meant bringing in magazines for my students to browse in their free time. Reader’s Digest were always a favorite because they were written in clear, simple English. My students were able to get the point of just about every article. In addition, many of the pieces were great for opening discussions with my students.
Because I read, and reread each issue so faithfully in Egypt, I began to understand the true character of the magazine as never before. I began to understand that Reader’s Digest is a great representative of the ideals of American culture. Each issue promotes working hard to get ahead, following your conscience, being honorable, and the importance of God and family. As I began to understand the mission of Reader’s Digest, I began to turn away from it.
In Egypt at the time, the news media was owned by the government. Every day, there was a 15 minute news broadcast in English. However, there was never anything bad happening in Egypt. Fires, murders and corruption were duly reported from around the world. However, the Egyptian news consisted of reports on the president’s phone calls and meetings to various heads of state. Due to the obvious slant of the media, I became very perceptive of propaganda around me. Therefore, I started to see the very conservative slant of Reader’s Digest.
Over the years, I have come to see that my “American” magazine only reflects a certain side of America. Reader’s Digest definitely shows its conservative roots. Articles on abortion are always written with a pro-life slant. Two types of minorities appear in the pages of Reader’s Digest – depraved criminals, or people who have overcome adversity through hard work and made something of themselves. Lenient judges are bashed, and articles are always calling for a tougher criminal system. Reader’s Digest is most definitely not the official magazine of the Democratic party.
I still read Reader’s Digest every month. I keep it in my home for my kids to read, because I hope it will draw them away from comic books and Goosebumps. I still enjoy the many inspirational, true stories, and still smile at the humor. However, I am a bit jaded now when I read it because I feel that they are trying to weave their agenda into every page.
One of the nice things about Reader’s Digest is that it has remained so constant through the years. The format doesn’t change much or very often. Recent years have seen a few efforts to keep up with the times. The magazine has a new, more modern look, and includes articles and humor about computers and the Internet. In fact, Reader’s Digest has even gone online. Overall, though, the magazine has maintained its basic style and character for my entire life. A typical month’s issue contains a few short feel-good essays, several humor sections, a dramatic true story, and an inspirational piece or two. In addition, there are several regular departments that keep readers updated on medical news, show us the more personal side of famous individuals, or even help improve readers’ vocabulary.
Upfront
Typically, there are several short, inspirational essays at the very beginning of the magazine. Often, they are tributes to rainbows, parents, or special animals. Most are only a couple of pages long, and none of them are very heavy. As my life has grown more stressed, this has grown to be my favorite section of the magazine.
In addition to the feel good pieces, there are typically a few miscellaneous short articles on money issues, health topics, or general interest. Typically, I skip most of this section and head right for the featured articles.
Features
The meat of the magazine is contained in the Features section. All of the main articles can be found here. Typically, Reader’s Digest focuses on articles along the lines of how to avoid a scam, corruption in various governments, and tales of heroism at its finest. This section also includes a monthly “Drama in Real Life” that details a harrowing experience or crisis.
The articles are all short, concise and to the point. Typically, most are not original articles written for the magazine, but are instead carefully selected articles from other publications. The one notable exception is the Drama in Real Life piece each month. For years, it was written by a couple named Per Ola and Emily De Aulare. Their names stick in my mind because I have always wondered how his name is pronounced. In recent issues, the couple no longer has the monopoly on the drama feature. Other names are cropping up on the byline. Although I faithfully read the drama section while in Egypt, (Heck, I faithfully read cereal boxes in Egypt because I was so bored) I really don’t care for it much. I can only read so much about people caught in floods, fires, storms, etc. until I lose total interest.
I do find the rest of the feature section a good, quick way to keep abreast of things that are going on in the world. I generally find something of interest in every issue. Cutting edge journalism, it is not. However, the articles are generally a quick, easy read.
Departments
Every month, Reader’s Digest includes several regular sections. Generally, there are three or more humor departments that contain true anecdotes about the military, education, family life, and medical or computer humor. These sections are guaranteed to contain good, clean humor that you can repeat at the office.
Besides the humor, there are short clips on medical news, real life heroes, a monthly vocabulary builder. Most months, there is also a section called “That’s Outrageous”, which features examples of some of the crazy things our government and judicial system can do.
Reader’s Digest is great to have around. It offers quick, short reads that entertain and inform me in the little spare time that I have. However, there is a definite agenda within its pages. I guess you could say that Reader’s Digest is the Horatio Alger of the magazine world. I am not naïve enough to believe that there are really any magazines out there without their own slant on the world. Reader’s Digest’s slant is just a bit more obvious than most’s.
Recommended:
Yes
Primary Reason for Buying: Articles Accepts Freelance Submissions: Yes
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