Posts Tagged ‘publics’

Wedding Announcements

Posted on September 27, 2012 in Wedding Announcements

While trying to brainstorm two newspapers that can be used to compare wedding announcements, I found myself looking back to my experience in Idaho and how different that area was from my hometown, Chicago. This summer I
Interned with the Nez Perce Reservation near Lewiston, Idaho and I discovered in my old backpack a weathered copy of the reservation newspaper, known as the Tac Tito’oqan. During my time there I had written several articles relating to the region’s environmental and social concerns and read it whenever I could. The Tac Tito’oqan differed greatly from my “hometown” newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. This becomes most evident when reading the wedding announcements. In the Tac Tito’oqan, wedding announcements submitted by the readers are long, detailed and personal. Essentially, they are mini biographies about the two people coming together to be married. A small newspaper with limited readership has the room for such detailed announcements because of lack of potential advertisers and writers. The newspaper itself is very personal, less focused on professionalism. The reservation is large for most reservations but the population is still around 5,000. Everyone knows everybody and the few publics that make up the reservation all overlap. When looking at the wedding announcements I wasn’t surprised to see that every couple was not only Native American but they were all Nez Perce Indian. Non-natives do live on the land but their relationship with the tribe is very stressed and therefore they would never read a native newspaper. Compare all of this to the Chicago Tribune. The first noticeable difference is the length of the announcements. All are very short, factual and to the point. It is also important to point out that I read the wedding announcements in the Tribune on their own web page. Not only does the Tac Tito’oqan lack a separate page for wedding announcements, they lack an entire website. The paper is also distributed monthly. The weddings you see are after an entire month has passed by – the immediacy of information is not as vital. As far as those represented in the announcement, the Tribune displays a diverse constituency. The first three announcements are about a Columbian-american couple, a teacher and a venture capitalist, and a national guardsman marrying his high school sweetheart. The Chicago Tribune is a national, metropolitan newspaper and its readership is very large. It represents thousands of different publics. The Tac Tito’oqan represents small, secluded publics that all interrelate within a culturally separate nation.

Wedding Announcements and County Fair Marriages in Stillwater, MN

Posted on September 27, 2012 in Wedding Announcements

Although I know the assignment was intended to be a comparison of wedding announcements from two different sources, this proved to be challenging for me, as neither the Minneapolis Star Tribune nor the St. Paul Pioneer Press post these announcements online, and I wanted to compare wedding announcements at my local and state level.  Instead, I found a related article from the Stillwater Gazette, my hometown newspaper, that I thought could prove to be an interesting study to tie together with an analysis of wedding announcements.

When I searched “wedding announcements” on the Stillwater Gazette website, I stumbled upon an article from July entitled, “Weddings on a stick: County Fair offers free weddings, vow renewals.” The Washington County Fair Board Director John Rheinberger boasts, “We are the only county in the United States to offer fair-sponsored free weddings and vow renewals every day of our fair to every qualified person without any pre-registration or contest involved, and in a very open setting on the fairgrounds so that all other fairgoers can witness the ceremonies.” The fact that Washington County is the only county in the nation to offer this “service” speaks to its small-town vibe, as only in such a town would people be interested in this event, with chances actually being good that one may know someone who is getting married or renewing vows.

The article quotes Judge Greg Galler, who performs the ceremonies: “I love the demographics of the fair. It is a good gathering spot and the ceremonies are something everyone can enjoy whether they participate or observe.” His characterization speaks to the public of those who live in Washington County, as within this area, the Washington County Fair is obviously a community-gathering place. He also characterizes the public as one that enjoys participating in such events, which obviously indicates some value placed on a sense of kinship and community. This story, albeit rather corny, indicates a great deal about the public of Washington County residents and Stillwater Gazette readers.

Furthermore, the actual engagement announcements in the Stillwater Gazette provide similar information about the public that is Stillwater residents. There are very few engagement announcements featured in the paper, which speaks to the fact that it is for a small town audience in which engagements are likely infrequent. In fact, there was a nearly two-month gap between the two most recent announcements featured on the site. The announcements are quite standard, with information including the names of the parents of the couple, where they attended high school, where they attended college, current place of residence, and occupation. All of the announcements I looked at included a white, heterosexual couple. The fact that no gay couples were featured is indicative of the “traditional” values of the small town, as well as of Minnesota, which does not yet permit gay marriage. The fact that these couples are all white and have attended college indicates a readership that is generally white, middle-class, and suburban families.

 

http://stillwatergazette.com/2012/07/20/weddings-on-a-stick-county-fair-offers-free-weddings-vow-renewals/

http://stillwatergazette.com/2012/09/14/myrvold-gleason/