Award Date

1-1-2002

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Studies

First Committee Member

Dolores Valencia Tanno

Number of Pages

94

Abstract

The dot-corn and technology boom of the mid-to-late 1990s captured the imagination of the public in both the way they thought about and invested in the future. This study looks at the role the advertising of Wired magazine played in promoting the dot-com boom. Daniel Boorstin (1987) claims that pseudo-events, or events that are manufactured, set society's expectations to levels that cannot be attained. This study examines 75 advertisements taken from issues of Wired published in 1995 and uses criteria outlined by Boorstin to determine if these advertisements are pseudo-events. Traits of the design of Wired magazine framed by Stewart Millar (1998) are used to examine the advertisements and relate them to the content of the magazine itself. This study found that the majority of the advertisements studied can be classified as a pseudo-event under Boorstin's definition and that the advertisements did share design traits in common with the magazine as a whole. These findings support the argument that Wired both contained pseudo-events and acted as a pseudo-event, which helped to heighten society's expectations during the mid-to-late 1990s.

Keywords

Advertising; Analysis; Contemporary; Events; Magazine; Pseudo; Wired

Controlled Subject

Mass media; Marketing

File Format

pdf

File Size

2662.4 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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