HOW DOES MY MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT

DIFFERENT SOCIAL GROUPS?

Evaluation 4

• One of the things about music magazines is that they tend to cater towards a certain genre. For example, Kerrang! Is based around rock and alternative music, whereas Top of the Pops focuses on chart music, specifically those catchy ear worms. For Vagabond, that chosen genre is Indie, so in turn, that means I’ve tried to address that specific social group when creating my magazine in order to gain the biggest potential readership.

• The word ‘Indie’ itself is simply short for ‘individual’ so it’s hard to pigeon hole this audience into certain characteristics as that seems to throw a complete hypocrisy onto the term. However, it has to (and can be) done in order for marketing and advertising to be thorough. Throughout the genre, there are further sub cultures of the styles – in terms of both fashion and music – that the audiences seem to follow, for mine I have chosen the more mellow, chilled out indie crowd. The sort to dress in warm colours and jewel tones like burgundies, oranges and browns.

• I feel I addressed the desired colour scheme well with the block colours on my cover and the chosen outfits of the models. One of the stereotypes that seems to follow the genre is the stony expression which my models have shown here, which is later contrasted in the double page spread where you can see the girl band having fun in the garden. This ties the magazine together, with the cold expressions on the bright cover, yet the happy expressions in the more muted double page spread.

• The clothing choice I think is very representational of what a typical indie kid may wear. With the charity shop, DIY clothing and colour palette.

• The font and text used throughout my magazine is also very minimalistic, which coincides with that of the indie community. Much of what I was trying to achieve was a sense of warmth through colour scheme – yet not over complicating it, by sticking to a simple palette of block colours.

• The social group would also be represented through my use of models. I’ve aimed my magazine at young British adults, so that’s who I chose to place on my cover. A readership is more likely to buy a product if they can see themselves represented in it, which is why the models are also female. As although I originally didn’t want to gender my magazine, after receiving my initial feedback I found that my readership was predominantly female or feminine so it was easier to cater towards this.