by slimboyfat 73 Replies latest watchtower bible
Someone on a German ex JW forum did the math:
http://forum.sektenausstieg.net/showthread.php?14796-Erwachet!-Immer-weniger-zu-lesen
The first diagram shows the number of characters published in Awake! per month: a drop of more than 80% in the last 10 years.
The Watchtower has also seen a decrease, but not quite as drastic:
Well I think this is great news that the mags. are so dumbed down. Personally I haven`t seen or read one in years .However if even half of what is spoken here is true ,their not going to gain any converts with half a brain ,so the end result can only mean more people leaving ,less people joining,and a continual decline in membership.And those who are left with half a brain can make more silly ,ludicrous , new light revelations , that keeps the spiral on a downward trend . Keep it up WTB&TS. Your doing us (apostates ) a favour.
smiddy
Steve2
I agree Awake is like sheep poop on grass!
< = if it looks like sheep poop it is sheep poop!
OK OK OK You Guys - HELLO
Have you read the latest copy of the ECONOMIST ?
Its complex, well researched, beautifully written
by highly intelligent people. How about the NEW YORKER ?
These are magazines addressing: literature, science religion,
ethics, social issues, politics, economics.
Don't take my word for it; pay the price and pick
up an issue of the Economist and the New Yorker and read it.
Or if you cannot afford it; go to the public library
and check out these magazines. The Watchtower and Awake
are ridiculous and embarrassing, written by idiots for idiots.
the mags have become trivial. trying to appeal to young ones with childish illustrations. wouldn't be surprised if they combine awake and watchtower.
Quendi - I agree with you
Public education is a mess. I was given a student
in an architectural class, it was a middle school level,
but the child was severely intellectually limited, retarded,
as we used to say, he had aspirations to be an architect,
and his parents and the school thought my class in, How to
Create Scaled Drawings and Models from those Drawings, was
appropriate for him. Even with a teacher's aide, he sat there,
incapable of understanding what was going on and the aide did
all the work for him and when the aide left he stopped working
entirely. My job was to humor him by saying " good job" "good Job"
Knowing all the while in the real world he would be fired on the spot.
Excellent comparisons village girl. The Economic Review is another superbly written magazine - packed with intelligent, insightful commentary. Some of the English dailies are also good value - allowing for political affiliations e.g, The Guardian. All is not dumbed down to be sure. In terms of TV news reporting that doesn't insult the intelligence, Aljazeera is virtually without peer.
Doesn't it makes sense as a business to have a more simplified magazine? Could articles like "Your Servant the Pencil" and "Are Pinatas for Christians" keep anybody's interest today except for my elderly mother? How can they possibly present new and interesting information after the glut they put out twice a month, 30+ topics per Awake, including "Watching the News" for the last 60+ years?
IMHO, times are different and streamlining printed material would be a good business decision. They don't care about the readers. But they know they have to print something...they are a publishing company. I was wondering 15 years ago how in the world could they keep the amount of articles up. You can get more inane tips and news in the daily news. And I would think that they would go light on meaty articles with the scrutiny of the exJWs, and stick with fear mongering to keep the troops in line.
Interesting data mariu, thanks. Not only have the number of words decreased dramatically, but the form is qualitatively different too. They no longer produce continuous prose as such, everything takes the form of bullet points and lists.
Below is the issue of the Awake! that I read.
I had to laugh at the Watchting the World on the first page that says you are more likely to die on your birthday from heart attack, stroke and suicide because of stress and alcohol. Talk about bias selection of stories to confirm your prejudices.
I thought I would like the article on sand cats because I love big cat and wild cats of all sorts, but there is nothing to the article really except a couple of nice pictures.
http://download.jw.org/files/media_magazines/a3/g_E_201307.pdf
I actually think that the magazine is fairly well done, technically. Consistent, clear design throughout. Nice typography, good amount of whitespace, well balanced use of colour. Modern but not too glossy. Fits into the whole new "jw.org" corporate design.
The problem is that they've nothing to say. It's an empty shell.
