Task 3

The reading and review of one academic magazine (whole magazine) (eg: National Geographic, Time, Reader’s Digest, Present Perfect…) – Look at the visuals accompanying the articles and describe their purposes

The academic magazine I chose to review was BBC Knowledge, the Asia Edition. 

This copy was the 8^th issue out of Volume 4. I had received this magazine from school and this being the only academic magazine I had, I had no choice but to choose this one.

The first article featured snapshots of interesting sights captured from different camera in the world. The pictures are big and they fill a whopping 2 pages. At the side of each picture includes a caption on where the picture was taken and they day, date and time. I think that this is so the reader can have a clear understanding on the symbolism of the picture, so they would understand its background and be able to appreciate it further.

The title of the second article is “Update- The Latest Intelligence”. Basically, this article features interesting snippets of news that is beyond imagination. Example include “Cancer Treatment Revolution”, “Mammoth in the Mall”, “The Tallest Tropical Tree in the World” and many more. Each story comes with a write-up and a few pictures to help the reader get a grasp of what is happening. This article also captures the reader’s attention by providing different types of news ranging from the out-of-this-world kind to the kind that challenges you analytical skills.

The third article is titles “World News in Context”. This is an article that writes about the things currently occurring in the world. This helps to keep the reader abreast of current issues. Each news article features a timeline to show when the event happened and it also gives the background to help readers who are reading this piece of news for the first time.

The fourth article, “The Origin of Life” contributes to eight pages of the magazine on its own. Which is a lot! Basically, this article features the different theories scientists and people have come up with. It also incorporates a bit of biology so it would definitely interest those who like biology. The article is also very detailed, stating the evidences scientist and people have given when they coined the theory responsible for making the word.

The fifth article is an interview called “The Weird World of Quantum Theory” done by the editor of the magazine and two professors, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. This article shows how the professors try to convince the editor why ‘reality is really stranger than you think’.

The sixth article is titled “The Science of Dogs” where John Bradshaw dig deep to find some surprising insights into man’s best friend. This article was my favourite as it was written very clearly and it was very structured. It began on the introduction of dogs before the story on how they became wild animals to household pets. This article incorporated a lot of pictures of the dogs and it also gave many cool facts. This causes the reader to want to read on as his interest is sustained throughout the entire article.

The seventh article is titled “When Washington Burned”. This article gave a bit of history on the war of 1812. It explained how the American navy conquered Britain, only to find out that 200 years later, Britain stood to gain more from the war. This article provided a lot of historical facts and featured lots of pictures ranging from the generals, to a war scene, to the warships used etc.

The eighth article is titled “Reach for the Stars” which explains how the interstellar travel of science fiction films could one day become a reality. This article was supported by lots of evidences and it even convinced me as a reader that this dream might one day become a reality.

The ninth article “Family Fortunes” features how the survival of the young Toque Macaques is directly dependent on their kin’s social status. As ridiculous as that sounds, I really liked the article as it portrayed animals having some characteristics of humans which made it a very enjoyable read.

 The tenth article was titled “Bird Flu Detectives” which was about the origins of bird flu and the different types of methods to combat it.

The eleventh article was titled “The End of Malaria” which showed the origins of Malaria and where it was most commonly found it. It also featured some pictures of the victims, This makes the reader sympathise with them and be thankful they are not in their shoes. Thus, in order to find out how they can prevent Malaria in their homes, they would naturally read on.

The next section in the magazine was the Question and Answer section. Questions sent to the website of the magazine would be answered by the editors in this section. I felt this article was really interesting as the questions asked were the sort of questions normal people would ask too.

Finally, the last article was on how gene therapy can performed on our own. This was a very good read as it brought basic instructions on how people at home can do it on their own.