Evaluation Question 2

How does the media product represent a particular social group?

The aim of the product was to appeal to a certain social group, specifically 15-25 year olds. I feel my completed product achieved this in a number of ways.

The front cover was designed to appeal to my target audience in a similar way that Kerrang! does, they are informal, quite focused and the people featured in their magazine are usually rock, punk or garage genre artists. This is the direction I wanted to aim for, without the punk aspect and their dark coloured front covers like the one below:

Their pose can be described as relaxed and simply enjoying themselves. I wanted to achieve the same effect by using a picture of the boys just posing in a non strict fashion, but had to cut the rest of the band out of the image due to the limited space. 

I eventually ended up using the image on the left, which represents his age and social group with his pose, clothing and still relates to rock/garage music with the included guitar.

In the article, the best representational aspects can be seen from again the images but also the textual content. For example, the images show immaturity and fun whilst at band practice,

The text could also represent this social group of young adolescent men. Their responses were serious when needed, showing their adjustable maturity whilst also quite laidback and comical, particularly towards the end. This approach is actually typical of most magazines similar to this, it creates a comfortable atomosphere for an age that would behave in the same way.

Referring back to clothing, they wear clothing of the target social group, there are hooded jumpers, t-shirts, beanie hats, cardigans and chinos, which all could be seen as quite sterotypical, but they are extremely common with my target audience.

The contents page represents the social group through its images again, similar to above, such as the rebellious clothing in the far right picture on one of them, but also contrasts with the casual smartwear shirt, but still stays in the social representation.

Despite the target social group, I think my articles and features are worded to attract a slightly more mature and older audience, but still maintain the same level of appeal. This therefore suggests that my magazine represents its social group as quite mature and devoted garage music fans that wear informal comfortable, casual clothing who, if they have purchased the magaizne, can expect a laidback monthly packed issue.