2. How does your media product

represent particular social groups?

Social GroupsStereotypes and groups are a main part of modern society and people are often labelled as to their interests and lifestyles and how they portray themselves. In the terms of media and music, it would be the clothing they wear, and what music they’re interested in. For example, the different genres in music, eg. Indie, Rock, Pop. People often dress and represent themselves in the way the media show due to these genres. For example, someone that loves rock is seen to stereotypically have black hair and dress in grungy clothes. Some people obviously go against stereotypes, however, the main point of social groups are stereotypical opinions and visions.

Memes & Tropes

However, memes and tropes play a massive part in peoples attitudes and views towards social groups. A meme is an idea that spreads through people and groups, someone's initial idea that then becomes a trope. An idea develops and becomes bigger and the minority then becomes the majority. A trope is a recurring element that continues and grows bigger due to someone's initial idea. Someone begins a trend or has an idea, for example in music that has grown and people have also used it and become to copy the idea.

This is a prime example of people in the media and in music, if an artist portrays a new item of clothing, people are likely to copy. To begin with it’s a meme because it’s the minority that wear it, however as the idea spreads through people and groups, it becomes a trope.

This is a massive part of social groups. The idea of the indie genre is individuals and being different, starting memes. However, obviously, as everything, it became a trope. As my main target audience is the indie music lovers, this is the social group I’m aiming my magazine towards.

Indie Due to the indie genre and social group being the main target audience, it was important to research and have a good understanding to achieve what I wanted too.

People who fit into the indie genre are the type of people who are likely to attend festivals due to their disposable income allowing them to do this. For example, the majority of people in their late teens have part time jobs or some sort of income that allows them to afford to attend these festivals. People any older than this are more likely to not be as interested due to having other financial things to take into consideration. Many people are attracted to this music due to festivals and the environment at them, people often enjoy the laid back lifestyle of festivals which is evident with the type of acoustic music that many of these artists portray. The majority of people are seen to enjoy themselves and enjoy the music.

They’re seen as quite quirky people with a ‘individual’ dress style that dress with a laidback not too ‘try hard’ attitude, often with the casual approach but make it look good, for example, effortless messy hair and quirky clothes. As I said, they’re often those that like attending smaller girls and having a very laid back attitude.

My Product Front Cover

My front cover shows the indie genre by the model I’ve used. She’s a model many people would look up to in that social group. She has long hair that looks ‘effortless’ and her clothing style looks quirky, with the flowery summer dress she has on, along with denim jacket. The flowery dress refers back to the festival feel that I’ve aimed to achieve reverting back to the genre and social group. Festival clothes are big in the genre around the summer time of year and many memes and tropes are shown by the clothes individuals wear as the same types of items are shown regularly.

The model looks laid back with her guitar in the sun representing the ideology once more that they just relax and enjoy their time. Using a female attracts the males to the magazine, showing the women in not a provocative way, like you would an R n B magazine but naturally beautiful and attractive as an individual.

By including a barcode that is able to scan the reader automatically to the webpage it addresses the reader and demographic using technology. The demographic is often younger and enjoys using technology so I have integrated intertexutlaity, using different areas of media.

Contents Page

I have included cover lines that automatically address the indie genre and what my focus group asked me to include in my magazine. My focus group where that of the indie demographic. For example, ‘festival fever’ and ‘new noise’. Festival fever adds to the factor of the indie genre enjoying the festival season. New noise indicates upcoming new artists that is also a main aspect of the social group and genre.

People from the indie genre are usually those that are individuals and being small, playing smaller gigs. Showing once more an example of memes and tropes. The artists often being small, and as more people hear and become intrigued in them they then get more recognition and media interest, becoming bigger in the music industry.

The photos once again show the genre. I’ve used an original image from a gig that I took myself, showing an artist performing, but showing the intimacy of the gig as it was only small. I’ve also show the summery aspect the image of ‘Emily Rodigez’ and yet again, at a gig, the attitudes of the people in the demographic, for example, two people enjoying themselves at a gig.

Double Page Spread

My double page story also automatically shows the indie genre. The article aims to inform readers of new upcoming artists. By analysing my demographic using a focus group, I found out one of the main objectives of the indie genre is often trying to discover new artists and help to gain them recognition and become big in the industry. They often start off as smaller artists and get bigger over time, beginning at smaller gigs at the bottom, growing bigger.

The article aims to help do this as it informs them of artists coming up and about. I did this by fact file and briefly discussing them, informing them of festivals they’d be able to see them at and gigs. By doing this its once again showing this aspect of the genre.

I have also included intertexutlaity and references to different web pages by including the artists Twitter links. Twitter is a vital way for promotion as it enables lots of people to be informed in a short amount of time and is a cheap way of doing it. Due to the artists only beginning and being small, often with little

funds this is an easy and effective way to promote themselves.

Once again, the same clothing has been used to show the laidback style, along with the colours used, such as light blue creating a summer aspect.