Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My

magazine is aimed towards both genders, however I feel as if it would appeal more to females than it would to males as the topics and themes of the magazine come across more feminine. For example, the main article is about a female duo discussing their big break through into the music industry – an article that would typically appeal to females rather than males. The headlines also appeal more to females in my opinion are they come across as more gossipy – for example ‘Aryan’s not so little secret’ – these type of headlines stereotypically appeal to females as they would be intrigued to find out about the secret. However, there are other aspects of my magazine which I think would appeal more to males – for example, some of the headlines promoting the pages for the hottest music producers at the moment and the festival 101. The physical appearance of the magazine also appears more feminine. The colour scheme is quite neutral; white, grey, blue and green – the way in which I have used these colour, for example, using gradients on the photographs, reflect a warmer, feminine look.

The magazine aims towards people aged between 15 and 21 – a teenage audience. I chose to aim my magazine towards this age range due to my market research where most of my participants were 16-17 meaning that I could use their insight and opinions to mould the magazine around their preferences and what they like and do not like. I think my magazine is successful in targeting this age range as the magazine appears to have an adolescence vibe to it and would typically appeal to the teenage girl. The use of colloquial language makes the magazine more relatable to a teenage audience than it would if I had used formal language as that would appeal more to an older audience. I think the colour scheme of my magazine also reflects a youthful audience as the colours are quite lively and eye catching, yet subtle at the same time. I think that this makes the magazine appear fun and appealing than if I had used a bold red in my magazine.

My magazine is aimed more towards working class and middle class people. My magazine reflects these social classes by being an affordable price at £3.50 – this was determined through my market research where I found that the majority of people would pay between £3.00 and £4.99. I also think that it appeals to these social classes in the chatty style it is presented in – it gives the magazine a

casual vibe which wouldn’t be suited to an upper class target audience. This is through the use of colloquial informal language used throughout the headlines as well as the double page spread article. If I was aiming towards a higher social class I would ensure I used more formal language within my article.

I also aimed my magazine towards an alternative genre fan base, due to alternative music proving to be popular during my market research – certain qualities of my magazine reflect this for example the featured duo ‘Svengali’ appear as an alternative group, reflected through the photography and the mise en scene such as the models’ style and composition within the photographs being slightly quirky. However, I also wanted to appeal to a more mainstream audience – I did this by making some of the headlines appeal to a more mainstream audience, for example, Annie Mac’s top 10 DJ’s and the festival information. Also, within the featured box I added a list of mainstream and alternative artists combined to appeal to both genres.