How does your media product represent particular social groups? The design and general literature of the magazine is what represents my target audience in which are listed under a particular social group. The reason for this is certain social groups would not understand the slang or use of colours used within this magazine, however the targeted social group would be able to understand the dialect and general theme. Also the contents of the magazine comply to a certain social group, if I were to hand a magazine with classical or rock artists to my target audience, they may not necessarily know who the artist is and will not be interested in the magazine, whereas in my magazine the artists affiliated with it are known by the audience. My target audience is also represented through: -
Title/ use of font Colour choice Layout and design of the magazine Use of model to represent/ stereotype the look of the people from this genre Language
Title & Use of font: The title of my magazine is Senda, this represents a certain grime specific skill called ‘Sending’, in which you write a song about another artist, to make them look worse. ‘Senda’ is also affiliated with a certain motorbike called a Derby Senda, it is noticed that these mopeds are commonly used by a specific target audience; this audience are exactly what I am also targeting. The font I used throughout the whole of my magazine was Cordia new, the reason for this is; it is a very modern and professional font in which can be read fluently and clearly. Colour Choice: My main colour scheme was Black, white and yellow, I felt that this use of black and white was very professional and modern, but is all accompanied and complimented by the bright yellow. When creating my draft magazine, I discovered that black, white and any other bright colour, for example green can create this really modern professional feel to a magazine. Therefore I then moved onto using a sort of acid yellow colour to accompany my black and white. By using the technique of highlighting key points with the yellow, using a black background and the rest of text being white, I have maintained a constant theme throughout my magazine. Layout & Design of the magazine: The general layout and design of my magazine was that of a modern and professional look, by using caps mostly throughout, and colour coding text, I feel as if I have achieved a constant layout for my magazine. However the layout and design of my final magazine was taken from my first draft, as you can see there is a resemblance between the two, words are highlighted with part of the colour scheme for effect, it also allows the reader to skim over the text and take out key points from the extracts.
Use of model to represent/ stereotype the look of the people from this genre: As it was hard to replicate what the target audience would be looking for within a model, I decided to use myself as a model as I fit this target audience genre specific. When taking photo’s I took into account the clothing and expression my target audience would commonly be affiliated with. As far as understanding my target audience goes, I basically replicated what I would look for in a typical grime magazine, what would draw me in, and why. As shown in this picture taken from my photo shoot, the hat in which I am wearing has already been done to suit a stereotypical opinion that people of my target audience tend to wear these Flat peak hats. For example a reader of a classical or jazz magazine would not tend to see and artist dressed like this on the front cover as it does not represent nor stereotype the genre specific. Language: I felt as if language was key when creating my magazine as there are a lot of slang words used within my target audience that other people would not understand, this meant that I had to select certain slang words to be used in the right place. Although the language throughout my magazine is generally very formal, it should still be noted that it does involve quotes and slang that could not be recognised by someone who is not affiliated with grime. An example of the slang I used are words such as ‘big up’, ‘don’ or ‘g’. These all relate to the typical London slang used between teenage gangs. Words like these have spread widely across the UK and are now a familiar trait to all ‘Grime kids’. Originating from black slang it is now a way of communication spread widely and understood by many.