-
’zines (from: ‘magazines’) (pronounced: ‘zeens’)
- ‘noncommercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation
magazines which their creators produce, publish, and distribute by themselves’
(Duncombe, 1997: 6)
-
zines - shaped by same social & technological forces as alt. press
-
1930s - USA - amongst Science Fiction (SF) fans
-
circulate
short stories and commentary with other SF fans
-
also
provides a means of communicating between SF fans
-
1970s - punk fanzines
- music ignored by mainstream musical press
- punks produce own publications on music, culture,
politics
-
1970s - technology - photocopiers
o reproduction cheap
o and easy (i.e. minimal
skills)
o ‘cut & paste’ methods
o stapling for binding
-
early 1980s - joined by ‘fans of other cultural genres, disgruntled
self-publishers, and the remnants of printed political dissent’ of 1960s &
1970s
e.g. U.K. mid-1980s - punk zines replaced by
football fanzines
-
late 1980s - DTP revolutionizes ’zine production
o ’zines - high production
values (mistaken for magazines)
o photographic quality &
manipulation (not ‘cut & paste’)
-
late 1980s - brought together via listings & review magazines:
o Factsheet Five - a listing & review of zines
o 1990s - Broken Pencil - a Canadian magazine listing & reviewing zines
-
‘fanzines’ - by late 1980s, ‘fan’ is dropped, hence, ‘zines’
-
in USA mid-1990s:
o est. 10,000 to 20,000 zines
(some think 50,000)
o est. of readership of all
zines: 500,000 to 750,000+
o 2 to 1 ratio in small
city/suburban/rural vs urban
(Duncombe, 1997)