How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

By Rosanna Todd

Front CoverMy music magazine represents the social group of teenagers

and within this- “indie rockers”

The mise-en-scene on my front cover

shows that it is targeted at this

social group

My front cover

Front cover of Kerrang

Similarities between the front cover of my music magazine “Exclusive” and the front cover of existing media product “Kerrang”

• The language used

•The position of the images

•The style of font and the position of the cover lines

•The colour scheme

•The header

•The way the picture is positioned in front of the masthead

•The flasher

•The clothes that the artists are wearing and their style

All these points show that my media product appeals to the

social group and sub-culture that the magazine is

aiming to represent

(This is called a sub-culture)

Contents Page

The natural facial expressions on the images show that the

magazine represents the sub-culture of “indie rockers”

because these are the type of expressions that would be

associated with them

My contents page

Contents page of Q magazine

Both contents pages have a editorial or review. The

language used in these is chatty and informal,

representing the particular social group I am targeting my magazine at. It therefore

relates to the target audience.

The colour scheme used on the contents pages are similar which shows that my music magazine would be appealing to the social group it is trying to represent.

Double page spread

My double page spread

Double page spread from NME magazine

Features used such as the standfirst, drop capital, image led page and big title show that these double page spreads are similar. It therefore shows that my music magazine represents the social group and sub-culture of indie rockers as that is the social group that NME is aimed at.

The clothing that the artists are wearing also show that the target

audience are “indie rockers” because these are the sort of

clothes/style that they would wear /follow.

What areas of society are represented in your magazine?

Age

•My magazine is targeted at 16-24 year olds.

•The social group of teenagers and young adults is therefore represented in my music magazine.

•This could be considered an area of society.

Middle class

•My media product represents the “middle class” area of society.

•This is shown through the language and images used throughout.

Although there is a difference between being 16 and 24 my magazine still appeals to both because both ages still share the same interest in music.

This means that they will know the same artists that the magazine refers to and this ensures that the double page spread article appeals to both 16-year-olds and young adults aged 24.

They may also follow the same fashion style and clothing and attend events such as gigs and festivals. The majority of readers would also be students so the ages of 16-24 could have this in common. Therefore the age gap is not an issue for my magazine.

The social group are seen to be

people who are comfortable with who they are and are “individual”

characters

Do you deal with issues of race, ethnicity, gender and disability?

Indie rockers are generalised to be seen as white. This

may be because big music festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading are situated in

England. This does not however mean that all people of this social group are white but it is a stereotypical view.

Indie rockers are also seen to be free,

spontaneous, quirky and individual characters.

I portrayed these view in my music

magazine so these issues have been

dealt with.

My media product is aimed at both male and females so the issue of gender is referred to

here. To ensure my magazine appealed to both genders, I used

a colour scheme that could typically attract both males and females (black, red and yellow) and I also used images of both male and females so that the

target audience of the magazine was clear.

Social group of teenage “indie rockers”

Indie/rock style