Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
What is a social group? Social groups are groups of people who usually share the same interests or have similar things in common with each other. My social group who I am aiming to buy my magazine are teenagers whose interests listening to indie and rock music or compose it and would like to read up on the lives of their favourite band members who share similar interests both at concert and in everyday life. From my audience profile I found out that girls mostly read music magazines and they are usually around the ages of 14-17. The social group my magazine is directed towards are teenage girls have their own style and consider themselves as ‘individual’ and don’t listen to mainstream music that would usually be features in the UK’s ‘top 40’ hits or listened to those songs before they became ‘mainstream’. Front cover I also looked at the type of poses that the women were posing in particular rock music magazines and the way the women were portrayed. When women are features in a band they are usually shown are the front and are bigger in size compared to the other band members, this could show importance or dominance over the other band members portrayed by their gender.
I looked at other music magazines which had women on the front cover and they all featured white text over them, I then came to the conclusion that the white and red font makes it more feminine. The left image where the girl is in front, her pose stands out as more rebellious and the men in the background look more angry in contrast with the girl in the right image where she looks cute and more girly and the men in the background of her in they all look happy and are smiling. By looking at both of these magazines I got the impression that these social groups that Kerrang have represented are nice happy people who can have a rebellious and angry side especially when music is involved and can be quite loud.
Other rock magazine
My magazine
Like Kerrang! My issue EXPLODE is aimed at girls who are aged from 14 to 18 year olds. I looked at how women were represented alone on magazines, I decided to go for a opposite approach as most women seem to want to be centralised whereas the image I chose for my front cover is more ‘cheeky’ and ‘loving’ rather than the image used on the left where she seems more of a ‘fighter’. I purposely used the colour red in my masthead so it gave more of an impact on the word and to make it stand out, the effect of the broken glass behind the word ‘explode’ links with the name of the magazine and what type of magazine it is as its symbolism towards rock music and the content within the magazine is ‘exploding’ through the front cover which is why there is cracks. The white background on the back of the masthead also makes it stand out more because it makes the drop shadow look more effective and easier to see.
From my audience research I learnt what type of clothes my target audience likes to wear, I then used the information I gathered and dressed my models for my magazines appropriately to fit the audience. From my reader research I found out that most of them preferred to shop on the high street rather than online so I purposely used clothes which were available on the high street on the people who were going to be included in my magazine.
When looking up the type of makeup that people who listen to ‘rock’ music wear I noticed that they wear a lot of black/ grey shadow or/and eyeliner with ‘wings’ and I decided when photographing the model for my magazine I wanted her to have this style of make-up. I chose a white T-shirt instead of a black T-shirt because I stood out more. I wanted to portray my social groups by the type of clothes the person on the magazine front cover wears and the fact on the front cover I featured ‘20% off high street clothes’ which represents my social group as people who wear different types of clothing off the high street because they are affordable and because the social group’s age I have directed my magazine to ages from around 14-18 and I’m assuming from my research that not many of them have a job but are still in fulltime education or if they are that they are old in part time jobs. Rock in comparison to mainstream
Left image: I have this image to portray the typical type of female stereotype in which will be in a mainstream social group and will read mainstream music magazines. The fashion of this girl represents someone who cares a lot about the way they look and what they wear and what is considered fashionable which usually changes seasonally, they like to wear lots of pretty jewellery and are often associated with the colour pink: for instance she is wearing pink lipstick and they would also wear dolly shoes or converse. Right image: I have this image to portray the typical type of female rock stereotype in which will be in an indie/rock social group and will read rock music magazines. The fashion of this girl represents someone who likes to wear the colour black and skinny jeans and leather/denim jackets, also the usually wear boots preferably doc martens but could also wear converse, they wear what they want because it makes them different to everyone else. They are very passionate about music and could also be musical and prefer unknown bands and bands that are considered rock/indie. Sometimes they can have natural coloured hair or it could be bright unnatural colours and can have lots of facial/body piercings.
Contents page Left image: On the contents page I chose the girls clothes that they should wear especially to portray the social group. The girls are not wearing very colourful clothes this shows what type of people and social group they are in as they all share the same interests: fashion, music, and friends. Their poses are casual which is the theme I am using to portray the social group who like to listen and read about rock music, which are my audience and because of this it makes it more easier for them to relate too.
Right image: The whole page is mainly covered in pink and has fashion that is directed to be entirely girly with ‘pink boots’ and a jumper with the work ‘cute’ on it.
Double page spreads
The left image: The masthead for this double page spread has the word ‘perfect’ which is more stereotypically to what a girly girl would describe something as this is supported by the fact the magazine has its columns and writing in different shades of pink which make it look like it’s more directed for a female audience as well as there being 4 female cover stars. All of the girls are smiling and are all wearing the same type of clothing and a lot of make-up, they are all young and the way they dress is more as if they are going on a night out. The right image: The cover star is big on the eye make-up and has a more casual look: with the normal facial expression don’t make her look like she wants the attention all on her. The colour scheme I have used doesn’t make it obvious what type of social group it is aimed at but makes it individual which is what my social group is all about, however with the fancy writing on the masthead and the images of a female makes it obvious what type of social group my magazine is aimed for. The clothes my cover star is wearing are more caual which is what my social group can relate towards rather than the girls in the above magazine because they are in their early 20s and the audience in my magazine are 14-18 and are more interested in something they can be involved in.