How does your media product represent different social groups?

How does my magazine represent gender?

My magazine is targeted at a mainly female audience. For my front cover, I took an image to make it look like Madonna in the 80s. She was a fashion icon in the 80s and on this image she is wearing what would have been fashionable clothes in the 80s. The style of photography used is posed to reflect this idea of her modelling fashion. I have done this to target my female audience as stereotypically women are the sex in which are interested in fashion. My model for this image looks very confident which is breaking the stereotype of women however she does look feminine as she is wearing a bow in her hair and jewellery which supports the idea of women being feminine and girly stereotypically.

There is only one picture of a male in my magazine. However, in the picture he is wearing what would have been fashionable clothes in the 80s therefore it is breaking the stereotype of men being masculine. This wouldn’t attract a male audience in general therefore it is still mainly aimed at a female audience.

Both male and female are presented as being fashionable and are posing which suggests the magazine is targeted mainly at a female audience. My characters are mainly female and this is because my main article is about Madonna. It is also because the female audience can relate to fashion more if it’s on a woman.

How does my magazine represent age?

The age of my characters are fairly young, in about their twenties, however this is because this picture was supposed to be taken in the 80s therefore the character would be middle aged now. This means that the older target audience can relate to the characters and it will take them back to the day when they were the young, e.g. the fashions and music. The image of Debbie Harry shows her as an old woman however this is showing how she is an 80s comeback. Stereotypically an older audience and teenage audience wouldn’t be attracted to this magazine as it uses lots of bold and bright colours. However, this is an exception because it is an 80s special edition magazine so the people in these age groups will still be attracted to buy my magazine because the colours and style reflects the 80s.

How does my magazine represent class?

The class of my characters are middle-upper class. There are well dressed and take care of their appearance. The audience of my magazine would be a mixture of class as it is for people who enjoy the 80s music however also people who like modern pop music with an 80s influence. However the dominant class would probably be middle class. My characters reflect the middle class person, well dressed with a nice appearance, well educated, lives in a nice home, stable family background and job and be fairly rich.

How does my magazine represent ethnicity?

All the characters in my magazine are white however this does not reflect my audience. There are no ethnic groups presented in my magazine due to the fact there are little ethnic groups living in York, where I live, therefore it would have been hard to find models. However if all of the pages were to be made in my magazine, it would feature different ethnic groups including the Black Eyed Peas. My magazine is aimed at a multicultural audience, it is for anyone who is interested in 80s pop music. A white American pop star is stereotypically pretty, fashionable and feminine and I have followed this stereotype. My character acting as ‘Madonna’ on my front cover is stood in a posed position, wearing fashionable clothes and wearing make up.

Why would my audience buy and read my product?

I think my audience would read my magazine for some light reading to entertain them (entertainment). For the older target audience, it would help them to reminisce the past and for the younger generation will teach them more about 80s music. It also keeps the audience up to date with how modern music is being influenced by the 80s era of music (information). This magazine would be read in the evening or before bed after a long day at work/school (entertainment).

If I were to refer to the McQuail (1987) I would find the reasons for media use of my product would be entertainment and information.