Evaluation Draft Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents the particular social group of what could be called 'indie scenesters'  as I have designed the magazine to suit the needs of this social group. The style of the magazine is similar to that of Q and NME because these are the same music genre as my magazine (mainly indie and variations around it). The use of the black, white and red colour scheme represents the genre because these are the colours you most often associate with the bands that would feature in the magazine; thus mixing in well.  I chose my cover artist because I thought she would appeal to the female audience I am targeting. I don't think she is particularly represented in respect of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory as something that is to be desired by men. This isn't to say she isn't, but more that this is not how the photograph on the front cover represents her. The pose is much more similar to Marjorie Ferguson's chocolate box pose; with the smile, three-quarter turned head and uniformed mid shot used. Because of this picture I feel it addresses a more female audience. Her clothes reflect the genre of music; I knew that the indie genre wouldn't be represented by someone dressed glamorously with heavy make up and well done hair. Also, 'Indie Scenesters are not a social group represented in a materialistic manner, so I have taken inspiration from other artists in the indie genre and copied their style how i can. The chequered shirt was taken as inspiration from the NME Lily Allen interview as I wanted my artist to be represented in a similarly visual way; as i felt the style reflected worked well.  

My contents page represents my indie scenester social group primarily because of the layout I think. The textual layout is designed for a semi literate audience; meaning they have a reasonable idea of the kind of music in the magazine and would therefore understand the written aspect such as a play on words when talking about a band. The written style is to the point, simple and very concentrated on the music aspect. I have made it this way to appeal to the social group, as I think if it wasn't very concentrated the audience would find it dull and be less likely to buy my magazine. The pictures on the contents are primarily female, again appealing to a more female audience. They are also very clearly people of a young age, which I think will appeal to the social group I'm targeting as they are of a similar age and can therefore relate and aspire to these people. The fact that much of the content relates to festivals and live performances fits into the 'indie scenester' social group as this is popular within the social group, so they are more likely to be interested in buying the magazine. 

The double page spread represents a youthful social group I think primarily because of the photograph used. I think it is reflective of the artist's age as it makes her appear quite naive and innocent; something we associate more in younger people. However, as well as this there is an intriguing aspect to the photograph which I think again would appeal to the social group as I feel a a person who I would be trying to appeal to would find her stance and the framing of the photo interesting and the styling of it would encourage them to read the interview. Because the artist herself would actually fit into the target audience, she represents the social group perfectly. I aimed to match her tone in the interview to the way those in the representative social group would speak so they could relate easier. However, I wanted to keep the tone reasonably formal so as not to patronize the reader, who would have a respectable knowledge of music.