AustLit

'As the Internet does today, the illustrated magazine significantly defined Australian readers’ knowledge of the nation and the world for much of the 20th century. Magazines graced domestic spaces and dentists’ surgeries; magazine stands filled busy city street corners and transport hubs; and publishers, government departments, and tourism bureaus sent magazines overseas to attract migrants, business investments and tourists. Up to 800,000 Australians read the Australian Women’s Weekly by 1961, with many other titles regularly achieving large circulation figures in a commercial market that in 1963 included 900 journals and magazines. The Weekly continues to provide new avenues for scholarly research, from education to art history to Cold War politics, as well as food and fashion histories. Our themed section for the Journal of Australian Studies forms part of a research project designed to diversify magazine studies in Australia, to broaden the sources and understanding of their significance in Australian cultural history, and to connect scholarship across disciplines and link it to new international developments.' (Introduction)