Evaluation - Question Two.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

There are many ways in which media present particular social groups, examples of this would be Mise-en-scene, colour, fonts, language, camera-work and editing. Therefore when making my magazine I kept these things in mind so that I knew throughout my magazine I was connecting to the social group which I wanted to attract.

I think that I strongly attracted the social group I wanted with my front cover, contents page and double page spread, firstly I had to make sure I had an idea in my mind of what type of social group and target audience I wanted to attract, I then had to think about the factors above and try and work all of them into my magazine in a way that will attract my desired social group, my social group which I wanted to attract was a male and female frame the ages of 16-25 interested in rock music.


Therefore I tried to make my front cover, contents page and double page spread suitable for that audience. For example on my front cover the main image used is of a young male aged 22 which I think attracts the target audience as they are in the same age group, this represents the target audience as they are likely to be of similar age and style as the artist on the front cover. The way he is dressed also represents the target audience due to the popular bland label show on the top he is wearing, he is giving off a indie look which is a popular style in my target audience, I kept the colour scheme to black, white and read as this doesn’t direct to a specific gender and is common in most rock magazines, the language used on the front cover is slightly informal as this type of magazine and the social group I am trying to represent are more likely to be attracted to this type of language and can relate due to the age of the social group represented. The image on the front cover is edited as I felt it need to be more vibrant as it was the main image on the front cover and need to catch people’s attention.  


On the contents page I widened the age range of the people in the photos so that it isn’t subjected to a certain age, this would represent my social group as it would interest the youngest and oldest people of my target audience. Once again I  kept the colour scheme to red, white and black as I thought this looked professional but edgy at the same time which links into the genre of music in the magazine, I didn’t edit the photos on the front cover as I wanted to keep them simple, and didn’t want to overdo it. The language used in the contents page is also informal and uses some ‘slang’ terms that the reader will be able to relate too and understand. The lighting on the photo has been kept bright so that the photos look less intimidating and more inviting for my chosen social group. It also helps to present my target audience in a positive light due to the way that they are smiling in the photos and I think it helps present the younger generation as civilised, the opposite of how people would stereo-typically judge people of 16-25 to be. The font used on my contents page has been kept simple but more than one font has been used so you are able to get a variation, this has once again been done in the colour scheme chosen, so that there is a connection between the pages of a magazine and so that it looks more professional.


On my double page spread the main image is edited so that it looks brighter and more appealing to my target audience, the same colour scheme has again been used to show a professional and edgy side to the magazine. The double page spread represents my target audience due to the way that I wanted it to be bold and strong so that it stood out, The column layout I chose for my double page spread shows the formal side to the target audience without becoming too formal as the question and answer technique has been used, the language used in this is informal and also uses ‘slang’ terms which allows the target audience to connect with the artist.