How does your media product represent different social groups?

1. How does your media product
represent different social groups

2. Gender
My magazine has only featured female artists throughout, this is because my
target audience is for mainly females. This was a decision i made with my focus
group over Facebook when I was deciding on what magazines to use and
production examples and we had decided to mainly focus on a magazine that I
also targeting a female audience. My magazine also represent teenage girls in a
good light, this is because they are represented as strong independent girls, I
have also created countertypes because usually in music women are dressed in
provocative clothing for the male gaze as women in the media are represented as
sex objects. Another stereotype I have decided to challenge is that teenagers are
stereotyped as dangerous and have been represented quite negatively in the
media, but I have teens who have worked hard to get to their position which
again creates a countertype.

3. Age
The age that I targeted for my magazine was mid teens to early twenties, the way I attracted an
audience like this was to use models that were roughly in-between this age. The reason this
would be successful in attracting an audience between this age is because by using an artist
around this age my audience would feel as though they can relate to them thus creating a
personal relationship between the artist and audience encouraging them to buy and read it, this
is the use of a hypodermic needle as they audience are injected with this idea of a personal
relationship and may become powerless to read the articles. In this article I have also challenged
the representation on teens, as they are usually represented quite poorly I have represented
them as hard working happy and polite. This again will encourage more teens to buy this
magazine and they feel that the magazine is representing their age group positively and may be
able to relate to this. This is a countertype as their is no use of bad language aggression smoking
and drinking. This will make my magazine different from others as I have challenged the
conventions of most magazines and media products. The images in my magazine are taken from
an equal level to show equality and that these teens aren't as intimidating as they are
represented. I have also used an interview image where they are positioned lower making them
seem vulnerable and sweet, they are also laughing in another image showing they are fun loving
and friendly. In my articles I have used humour that teens can laugh at and experiences that
they can relate to.

4. Ethnicity
In my magazine I do not feel as though I have used different ethnic backgrounds,
I also feel I haven't mentioned ethnicity at all in my final piece as I was not
targeting any one ethnic group. I have not represented different ethnicities and
have not been positive or negative on ethnicity and race. I was quite neutral
towards ethnicity and race, this is because it wasn't my main focus to narrow
down to a certain ethnic background as I wanted to show equality in ethnicity so
I did not mention it in articles and in my magazine. The girls I used were from a
white British background but I did not intentionally do this as I want to
represent all races as equal.

5. Social class
For my magazine I mainly focused on the middle class as I my magazine isn't sophisticated
enough for the upper classes, and I think it best suites teen girls of a middle class
background due to the use of interviews in my article and the choice of language I have
used in my text and my choice in house style. Due to my research into bliss and under the
radar I found that they also aim at middle class social group and as I have based my
magazine loosely around theirs I thought it would be a good decision to base my magazine
around this social class also. I have made it clear which social group I have targeted through
out my magazine, these example include features such as; festival headliners, these are the
sort of thing that attracts most middle class teens. I have used a curly, smooth font as this is
the sort of font used for social media sites, and is a well recognised font. The cost of my
magazine also indicates that it is for a middle class as it is not very expensive and can be
affordable for young middle class girls. In my front page and double page spread the girls I
have used are dressed in casual clothing, day time dresses and skirts with quite a small
amount make up so they don't look overly made up, so they look like they wear affordable
makeup for middle class girls.