Life Magazine Covers

http://hist380.ferrellhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/HIST-380-Project-4-3-Life-Magazine-covers.pdf

6 thoughts on “Life Magazine Covers”

  1. CamKost says:

    Between 1965 and 1972, Life magazine, like any news organization at the time, was inundated with stories from the Vietnam War. The U.S. became involved in the Vietnam War in 1965 after the White House reported that a U.S. ship was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin and many Americans at the time were supported of the war. As the war progressed and thousands of Americans lost their lives, the American society of the late 1960s became weary of the war efforts overseas. There was no better place to understand the progression of that apathy regarding war than the Life magazine covers during the years of the Vietnam War.

    The covers of the early years of the war, and the magazine covers that accompanied them, reflect the U.S. citizens’ acceptance of the need for war. North Vietnam was a communist regime and the U.S., still engulfed by the fears of the Cold War, wanted to prevent another rise in communism. Especially after the incident at the Gulf of Tonkin, Americans saw the war as necessary. Magazine covers featured soldiers portrayed as heroes. However, the depictions of heroic soldiers quickly turned into depictions of dead soldiers and the other horrors of war.

    The change in tone on Life’s magazine covers was reflective of the attitudes of Americans. The opposition towards the war became stronger by the day. The covers of Life magazine reflect that. Instead of glorifying the war efforts, Life chose to show wounded—or dead—soldiers to show how awful war really is. They had the opportunity, with such a large audience during the Vietnam War era, to show America what the war was really like, and they used their platform responsibly.

      • rhasting says:

        Cameron, thanks for your response. It was very informative about how America became involved in a shooting war in Vietnam. I debated on putting that information into my essay, but decided against it as we are only allowed a maximum of 600 words. Therefore, I had to focus on the topic which was the analyzing of the media’s coverage of this war, specifically Life magazine covers. I am including a copy to the link of where I gathered my information from so that you can take a look at them as well. Focus your attention on all the folders between 1450 to 1899. http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/life/33

  2. rpratt says:

    Hey Ryan! Great project this week. I really enjoyed reading your analysis on the Life’s articles and covers from across the years. It is interesting to see the magazine change with the viewers. It makes sense that with the public’s views on the Vietnam War changed, that the magazine would follow. I am sure that sales were a major factor to make a change plus their own views. I liked the part about the specific point in time that there was a change made in the narrative. Was the picture on the magazine the photo of Mary Ann Vecchio? What was the most powerful story and photo that you saw in your research? Was the change from almost propaganda to anti-war movement very gradual or all at once? Great work once again. I really enjoyed reading your work and I look forward to seeing your final products this coming week.

    “I pledge..”
    (Word COunt 150)

  3. Ckelly5 says:

    I was interested in your comment that “each of these cover stories demonstrated a
    level of journalistic impartiality” up until public opinion made/forced them to change their mind. Magazines and newspapers (especially now) do change which stories they tell and how they tell them based on the demographic that they are targeting; would this imply that Life was aimed towards a younger, less conservative demographic that turns over quickly or that their existing demographic changed their views radically within the span of a few years? Either way, it would be interesting to see how the turnaround shown in Life compared to other media outlets. (I pledge 105)

  4. rhasting says:

    Hey Caitlin, thank you for your response. This was a difficult assignment to do because it was dealing with 8 years of media coverage in a max of 600 words. Because of this I had to focus on at on two of each year’s covers. Between 1965-1967 Life covers did feature depictions of wounded soldiers and marines, but there were also quite a few, for a lack of a better word, “inspirational” photo covers as well. That is where the impartiality I referred to lies. From 1968 and on, cover photos solely depicted the harsh realities of war. I am including a copy to the link of where I gathered my information from so that you can take a look at them as well. Focus your attention on all the folders between 1450 to 1899. http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/life/33

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