Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As discussed in the first evaluation question my magazine centres around a particular genre - Indie-Pop. This means that mostly fans of the Indie music genre will read this magazine. However, I do not consider my magazine to be aimed at a niche audience but a mass audience because I believe this type of music can be enjoyed by many - as it has evolved from various genres (e.g rock and pop).It is also aimed at a particular age group (mid teens to early twenties) and a particular class (middle class).


On the right is an NME magazine front cover showing the representation of the Indie genre through the group 'The Maccabees'. The two photos on the left are two I used in my media product. My artist has an extremely similar fashion and hairstyle to the band members of 'The Maccabees', showing that my artist also represents the Indie music genre in a similar way.

The gaze of 'The Maccabees' is straight at the camera like all magazines. However, it is a casual gaze at the camera - not a stare. This is the type of look I tried to recreate with the first photo. In my second photo, my artist's gaze actually is a stare. This may not fit the usual look for this genre but for the mise-en-scéne of the photo it is relevant and probably more appropriate.

However, despite being aimed towards the Indie group, topics such as News will need to be covered within my magazine which may affect other social groups. Therefore I also needed to attract other social groups to my magazine - by listing various other artsits from different genres, such as Cheryl Cole and Eminem.


Age

The age group of my magazine is from the ages of around 16 to 21. This means that a wide variety of groups will be reading my magazine. Firstly because 16 -18 year olds are still in school or have low-paid jobs the magazine needed to be affordable, therefore the price of the magazine is an appropriate price of £3.10. This price means that more people of a younger age will be willing to buy my magazine. The language of my magazine is for an audience mature enough to cope with casual swearing in a certain context ('fuck it' and 'shitting myself' etc), but not so mature that they look down upon swear words altogether.

However, I am aware there are many 30+ year old people who read music magazines in a bid to keep with what is popular at the time and to mix it up with the music which was around when they were 16. Therefore I had to keep their views in mind when creating this product.

Class

The audience's class also relates to the price. If someone is looking for a more expensive magazine than my price they are most probably in the higher class. My magazine may not be available to the lower class but there are plenty of weekly magazines (NME and Kerrang!) that cost around £2.20.

To come to a verdict, the social group my magazine most represents is a middle class, young adult between the age of 16-21 who loves all music but leans more towards the Indie genre.