Evaluation – How does your media product represent particular social groups?

By Rachael Sampson

Firstly – What is My Particular Social Group?The group of people my music magazine is trying to attract is those who are in the 16-20 bracket (young adults) who have an interest in the genre alternative rock. This genre covers musical artists such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Hole, Pearl Jam, The White Stripes, Pixies and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Ways in which I think this is represented in my music magazine

• The main style of people who enjoy this style of music like the typical grunge look. I made my magazine look grunge-esque by having a colour scheme of red, black and white, then for my double page spread I used a green. This reflects the genre and doesn’t go away from the conventional grunge appearance which means it is simple for an audience to see what style of magazine it is.

• I also think this is reflected from the logo of the magazine. The definition of tremolo is the component on an electric guitar which can be used to alter the frequency of the music. This component is used a lot within the alternative rock music scene. Therefore it would lure in my target audience and it represents the whole social group. The style in which it is portrayed in also gives this representation because it is very simplistic. If you look at other logos of magazines about alternative rock, you can see that they are all simplistic.

• It also represents this social group through the language used within the magazine, take the interview as an example, the loose, reckless language used which is slightly informal is representing this group because stereotypically, the people reading it speak in similar tongue to this. Looking at interviews with the role models for this target audience, they swear a lot and don’t shy away from telling the truth. Using language like this in my music magazine is representing these role models and their fans as it is how they typically speak.

• One of the key ways I managed to make my music magazine represent particular social groups is by using artists known to the readers along with my own made up artists. Using names such as Arcade Fire, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis and Kim Deal.

• The finer details which I think reflect my particular social group is the way I portrayed my feature ‘The Comrads’ for my female model I t was crustal that she had red lipstick and black winged eyeliner because that is a common relation between how people portray themselves when they love the alternative rock genre. Also portraying the models in a very intimidating way, with blunt looks and dark clothing, and for the female model, making her look slightly sexualised by showing her stomach on the double page spread.