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José E. Romero

ENC 4297

Prof. Sara Raffel

6 March 2022

Publishing Critique: Into

Into (https://www.intomore.com/) is a digital magazine focused on delivering LGBTQ+

related content on pop culture, media, politics, and queer activism among other topics. The Los

Angeles-based magazine addresses current events with a queer perspective through a mixture of

“hard news” content and entertainment to a tech-savvy reader base through its social media chan-

nels attempting to integrate multimodality and diversify their content. The publication also pro-

vides different angles to uncover the overarching experience of the queer urban experience. Pre-

vious publications considered for this critique include a how-to guide on organizing and curating

an exhibition for a Canadian non-profit linked to the 2020 Winter Olympic Games, performance

art from a contemporary museum, exhibits and cultural publications from independent publish-

ers.

Analyzing a digital magazine would better understand how traditional media conventions

can be applied in digital publishing: “Digital media is a result of the gradual development and ac-

cumulation of a large number of software techniques, algorithms, data structures and interface

conventions and metaphors” (Manovich 152). By critiquing Into’s design, prose and content, ar-

ticle curation, “safe space” discourse, and commitment to social justice, Into’s strengths lie in

promoting inclusivity through its media and article selection, while its weaknesses include the

danger of creating echo chambers and sparse engagement with the audience.

Style, Content and Prose

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The Into home webpage shows a rainbow-colored rendition of the namesake logo with a

color scheme that is referred to as a signifier of its core queer audience. Note how color is used

as a spare accent against the white space and the encapsulated black-and-white text. Williams ar-

gues that “color is created by such variances as the weight of the letterforms, the structure, the

form, the space inside the letters, the size of the type, or the size of the x-height” (165, emphasis

mine). Alongside the featured article in the central image, the left and right sides of the page re-

spectively show a list of Trending and Editor’s Picks, articles of potential interest to its readers.

This layout provides signifiers to readers that facilitate how to find meaningful information and

interact with the website (Norman 14; see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Into website front page.

The language used in the articles is informal, colloquial, and conversational. While the

prose in the articles is not strictly technical, “first-and-second personal pronouns” abound in tone

alongside “analogies, examples, details, and even personal anecdotal information people can re-

late to” (Jones 194; see Fig. 2). This type of writing also encapsulates plain language, allowing

for “clear and concise communication” towards the public (Kimble 52). Plain language can also

promote social justice goals, to which Jones and Williams argue these principles can be used to
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“redress injustice,” integrate inclusion, and “amplify [the] agency of oppressed and marginalized

groups” (413).

Fig. 2: First paragraph of a curated article (Emma Ambrose, Lie Unplugged: The Matrix
Ressurection’s Liminal Politics, 2020).

Discourse Community

Because Into is a publication with the LGBTQ+ community as its main audience, its con-

tent must accurately reflect its commitment to inclusivity, social acceptance, and visibility. Jones

defines the term discourse community as a group of people that “share a special language, experi-

ences, basic knowledge, expectations, values, methodologies, idiosyncrasies and goals” (20). As

queer experiences tend to be as disparate, unique, and contradictory, the ability for a queer publi-

cation to harmonize and collaborate these properties is significant. Even within this discourse

community, co-cultures and subcultures are varied and propose major avenues for self-identifica-

tion (Floyd 41-42). Walton et al also refers to this issue as positionality within social justice,

which “allows for people to recognize, account for, and hold as true conflicting, contradictory as-

pects of their own identity as well as others” (66). The publication does not shy away from these

contradictions—rather, it celebrates them and actively seeks writers to contribute to the website,

as can be observed on the Write for Us webpage (see Fig. 3).

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Fig. 3: A screenshot of Into’s “Write for Us” page.

Inclusivity in Social Justice

Walton et al describes inclusivity as the ability to “decenter oneself” from biases and rec-

ognize other life perspectives that might confront one’s own (52). Along with positionality, in-

clusivity leverages numerous perspectives to be discussed within the same discourse community

without facing exclusion. Likewise, Lucero reports that the use of tools like social (and digital)

media can allow queer youth to “safely navigate their lives through learning, participation, en-

gagement, communication and construction of identity in the process” (124). However, the arti-

cles on the Into website do not have a comments section for community engagement. It is un-

clear if this is to avoid negative or toxic reader behavior—which research indicates that “incivil-

ity in comment sections can influence how people perceive a news organization brand” (Tenem-

boim et al 3)—or to transfer reader engagement towards social media channels such as Face-

book, Twitter or Instagram (see Fig. 4)—which can better connect with its target discourse com-
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munity as an avenue for education, socialization, teaching and experimentation (Cavalcante 179).

Likewise, using Berlyn’s arousal model, using “provocative images, questions, and statements”

that provide new opportunities for arousal can trigger even more opportunities to seek knowl-

edge and increase reader-brand engagement (Bautista 16).

Fig. 4: An image of Into’s footer. Please note the icons for social media pages Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram on the right.

Even if the digital magazine says it is more than a safe space, the publication is an orienta-

tion toward configuring the website a safe space for readers and contributors alike. Lucero notes

that social media (and digital media by extension) can become a tool to assist queer youth “navi-

gate their lives” through learning, participation, engagement, communication, and construction

of identity in online spaces (124). With its real-time engagement and self-curating material, so-

cial media provides the ability to safely express their sexual identity online, also serving as a

launching pad for public self-expression of identity. Likewise, the “queer” aspects of technology

can be reconciled with elements of queer theory Keeling titles Queer OS in an attempt to ques-

tion “social norms” and the mediatic portrayal of reality (153). This also leads to the curated con-

tent being diverse and affirming, at the same time also confrontational and appealing to an inter-

sectional and positional worldview.

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Limitations of Into as a Publication

While Into reflects the values of a queer audience, a significant weakness of the publication

lies in its niche appeal and propensity to become an echo chamber for its readers. Cirelli et al de-

note an echo chamber as “a mechanism to reinforce an existing opinion within a group and, as a

result, move the entire group toward more extreme positions” (1). The existence of echo cham-

bers can be challenging to provide fresh curated content for consumption, more so when its tar-

get audience may not feel challenge or confronted. Research denotes social media interactions

within queer youth provide the tools to engage in “curative socioemotional and interpersonal

processes as their authentic selves” (Austin et al 37). For this reason, the digital magazine can

improve on encouraging readers to make their own meaning towards their content (Bautista 13).

Into provides critical news, pop culture, and current affairs to a wider queer audience and

its allies, with the potential of avoiding alienating other audiences. The publication fosters a

warm environment for readers and writers alike to expand their perspectives through the digital

magazine’s focus on alternative and marginalized voices. While the magazine can improve by

expanding its interactivity and providing additional didactic content geared towards non-target

audiences, Into serves as a platform for real-life active content creation and curating towards a

niche group. A major takeaway from this critique on future publications is to consider and tailor

my content to a specific discourse community, but also provide ample affordances for other read-

ers. This way, topics can be both informative and entertaining—and, above all, committed to-

wards the principles of social justice.

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Works Cited

Ambrose, Emma. “Life Unplugged: The Matrix: Resurrections’ Liminal Politics.” INTO,

QDigital, 25 Feb. 2022, https://www.intomore.com/film/life-unplugged-matrix-

resurrections-liminal-politics/.

Austin, Ashley, et al. “It’s My Safe Space: The Life-Saving Role of the Internet in the Lives of

Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth.” International Journal of Transgender Health,

vol. 21, no. 1, 2020, pp. 33–44.,

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2019.1700202.

Cavalcante, Andre. “Tumbling Into Queer Utopias and Vortexes: Experiences of LGBTQ

Social Media Users on Tumblr.” Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 66, no. 12, 20 Sept.

2018, pp. 1715–1735., https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2018.1511131.

Cinelli, Matteo, et al. “The Echo Chamber Effect on Social Media.” Psychological and

Cognitive Sciences, vol. 118, no. 9, 2021, pp. 1–8.,

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023301118.

Floyd, Kory. Interpersonal Communication, Second Edition. 2nd ed., The McGraw-Hill

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Jones, Dan. Technical Writing Style. Allyn & Bacon, 1998

Jones, Natasha N., and Miriam F. Williams. “The Social Justice Impact of Plain Language: A

Critical Approach to Plain-Language Analysis.” IEEE Transactions on Professional

Communication , vol. 60, no. 4, Dec. 2017, pp. 412–429.,

https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2017.2762964.

Keeling , Kara. “Queer OS.” Cinema Journal, vol. 53, no. 2, 2014, pp. 152–157.,
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https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2014.0004.

Kimble, Joseph. “Answering the Critics of Plain Language.” The Scribes Journal of Legal

Writing, vol. 5, 1994, pp. 55–85.

Lucero, Leanna. “Safe Spaces in Online Places: Social Media and LGBTQ Youth.”

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