1. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
Francesca Couchman

2. ‘Typical indie girl’ – according to Tumblr search
According to Tumblr ‘indie girls’ follow the
conventions of having a certain look which
is meant to be fighting against being apart
of the crowd. From the first image there is
the concept to be with nature however
there is still a very artificial aspect to be an
indie girl.

3. However, there are
different types of ‘indie’
as the indie girls in these
images are more grunge
style. Different coloured
hair to stand out from the
crowd is being reinforced.
Although, the top left
images suggests grunge
due to the smoking and
the neck collar. In the
bottom images there is
heavy tattoos on one girl
enforcing the grunge
style look. However, this
again is just one aspect of
the modern ‘indie’ look.

4. According to 80’s indie which seems to be heavily based around men instead of women
indie was more to do with thrift shops, being seen as quite cool due to leather jackets and
guitars. This type of indie is more indie rock which is completely different to the genre I
was trying to appeal to however I believe its important to understand all aspects of the
indie culture and how its developed.

5. The stereotype of indie is being simplistic but there
is still an artificial look about the image. For example
the image in black in white doesn’t seem to follow
the convention of being dolled up to be beautiful
however even though she has a simple day dress on
she still probably has makeup and has taken great
consideration into what she is wearing. The second
image follows this due to the girls tights, she has
taken her time to rip her tights and blow the
chewing gum bubble for the image but in contrast
she is still trying to look attractive and portray
herself in a certain way.

6. The image on my front cover should come
across as simplistic and natural due to the
minimal look of makeup. In contrast I used
Photoshop to airbrush her skin and get rid
of any blemishes. I believe by doing this I
will attract to ‘indie girls’ because the
model looks pretty but not in the obvious
way (wearing a lot of making and wearing
glamorous clothes). Another reason I
airbrushed was being it seems to be a
requirement from indie magazines.
Although the image on the
bottom right isn’t a music
magazine, they are still trying
to attract the same audience
as my magazine and use a
simplistic approach but still
have airbrushed and used
a lot of makeup on their model.

7. My magazine has no male models
and is based more for young adults.
I think this is obvious due to the
contrast in ‘lad mag’ compared to
my magazines. In one way I have
tried to empower woman by using a
model wearing more clothing and
the only skin showing is her face and
hands. However if you look at a ‘lad
mag’ its women airbrushed to look
skinner, prettier and hardly have
clothes on.

8. What is worse for young women and men to see?
FHM and ZOO magazines portray women as sex objects and reduce them of their self worth.
However leading magazines such as Vogue Photoshop their images to give young girls and
young men unrealistic views on women. Picture 1 shows how the woman has been made
skinnier and have whiter teeth, and smaller facial features. This gives young girls self esteem
issues as they try to become something which the media deems as beautiful. Image two has
Photoshop the image but also is portraying the model as a sex object. This allows young boys
to feel as though they can treat women in a certain manner. More and more words are coming
around to abuse women such as ‘slag’ ‘whore’ ‘slut’, who are seen to do things with boys at
young ages. However women in the picture two are
seen as beautiful and role models.

9. The demographics of my target
audience does not meet the
demographics of ‘Lad’ mags
target audience.
Due to the young age of my
target audience my magazine
although has used airbrushing
has done it to promote a
healthy, basic look on the
model. My magazine does not
change the size of models to
make them seem perfect and
unachievable for young girls.