1. Q2. How does your media
product represent particular
social groups?
2. Q2. How does your media product represent particular
Colour Connotations: social groups?
These are the colours that feature throughout my magazine. Red, Black and White feature very heavily on all of
my products. Grey only features in very, very, very small places in my media products. I chose this house style as
from the beginning I wanted my main article to be about turning bad, therefore I chose the colour red as it has
connotations to the devil and bad. These are some other connotations to the colour red: passion, romance, style
and energy. Overall in relation to social groups I think this colour connotes flirty, pretty girls, kind of the girls you
would see on ‘Mean Girls’. The colour red gives me the image of students aged 16-19 who are living the wild life.
The colour white has complete opposite connotations to the colour red. Initially I chose the colour white as I wanted a fresh clean
look to my DPS, contents and front cover. Some connotations of the colour white are goodness, cleanliness and freshness. This
reminds me of social group from a TV series One Tree Hill who are a group of virgins. I think this relates directly to my main
feature which follows the lines of: Good to Bad. The colour white reminds me of the people just under my targeted audience as I
doubt very much that students are pure/goof!
Finally I chose to have the colour black to write most of the text on all of my products. The colour black
connotes mystery, formality, sophistication and power. I think these colours relate to the type of person I am
presenting my featured artist as. Also this relates to the article on my double page spread as the whole thing is
really about why Rihanna turned bad. In relation to music I would say that black connotes to the skin colour
black and music genre's reggae, rap, hip hop, RNB etc. The colour black reminds of the young groups of people
who hang around on the street causing trouble.
The colour grey features on my magazine in a few instances but I didn’t intend for this to happen for example I pulled
an image from the internet of Drake and made it seem as though there were Drake posters inside my magazine. Also
on my double page spread when I tinted the line at the top the middle of it turned grey. Grey connotes things such as
strength and maturity but in relation to social groups the colour grey reminds me of people who are at the top of
their industries for example the big bosses in a business. The colour Grey gives the connotation of old intelligent
men or men who have been in their industry for along time.
3. Q2. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
I Asked a few people to tick how important they thought five things that are included in
magazines are and how important these features are to them… The chart I asked them to tick is
below.
People said that competitions weren’t important at all. Most people said celebrity news and
fashion trends were very important. A few people said that posters where important and one
person said that freebies were important. Seeing my results I have based what features I have
included on my contents page. The next slide includes a break down of certain features.
4. Q2. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
Features and Article connotations:
Regulars: When choosing my features I looked at existing RNB magazine
• Read what your editor has to say this month
• Top ten songs of the month features to get some inspiration. I found that in RNB magazines a
• Years supply of Beat for less than £20 lot of the features relate to RNB artists which is why a lot of mine
• What does your scope say about you
Features: do. This represents the RNB music lovers social group that I think of
• Rihanna Opens Up ‘I was always bad’ as my audience.
• The king of swag teaches you how to dougie
• Bey-Z’s wedding special: Inside the dream. -Due to the fact that on my reader profile I said 77% of my
• Drake Bounces Back ‘2013 is my year’ audience would be females I decided to put a fashion heading with
• How to make it big with tips from Emeli Sande.
Fashion: several features relating to fashion such as ‘100’s of discounts not
• Latest trends on the street to be missed’.
• Need a New Wardrobe? Essential checklist inside.
• 100’s of discounts not to be missed -Also I think the discount feature also shows that my targeted
• Celebrities caught on camera audience will be social class DE as I they will love the discount
News:
• Now HMV’s gone what happens to music? feature. Also students are always up for saving money so it appeals
• Be the first to see T.I tour dates 2013. to my student audience I have focussed heavily on.
• So Solid Crew Special including posters.
Image Captions: -A lot of my features are about concerts and with my targeted
• Trey Songz’s comeback tour images inside. audience being 17/18/19 year olds these are the type of people
• Rizzle kicks ‘money, booze and drugs’
• Hottest locations in London.
going out to the concerts.
-Due to the fact that I relate my audience to the new generation who enjoy traveling I
have put the ‘London’ feature on my contents page because I relate London to the
new, trendy generation I have targeted my magazine at.
-Nearly all of my features have something to do with celebrities. I chose to do this as I
relate my audience with the type of people who want to always know the recent and up
to date news. Celebrity gossip is the type of news they are interested in.
5. Q2. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
Image Connotations Contents Page:
These are the images on my contents page. I have taken these images on several trips I have
being on in the past to concerts and top locations. The first and last images are both taken at
concerts but the size of the venues are different and I have chosen to over exaggerate this
contrast by zooming in on the first image which was taken at a small gig. Those two images
will attract all audience interested in concerts on a small and large scale. I have also used an
image from the London Underground ‘Earls Court; I chose to use this images as in my reader
profile I have stated that my audience will be the type that enjoy travelling yet also that they
don’t have much money so I believe that London is the type of place my audience will want to
visit. Also it relates the cool, trendy stereotypes I have related my audience to. When editing
the images I gave the first two a red tint this was as they were very dull to begin with and
didn’t suit the colour scheme of my magazine. However I tried not to edit the last image
which I chose as my main image. This is because I wanted it to stand out and look fresh and
clean. I think this image takes away the boldness of the colour red on my contents page.
6. Q2. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
I did a questionnaire on my peers who enjoyed listening to RNB music and where also students I
asked them a question relating to which social grade they would give themselves, Out of the
following?
0%
10%
10% AB
C1
C2
80% DE
The chart above shows my results. Also after the questionnaire I asked a couple of participants
why they chose this social grade and they all said ‘because we are students and do not get paid
therefor we are unemployed and depending on the state’ also one of my participants has a job
however she describribed her job as ‘semi-skilled or unskilled manual work. According to my
results I thought about the price I would have my magazine at… My research on this features on
the next page.
7. Q2. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
The next question on my questionnaire related to the price that people were willing to pay for a
magazine like mine. I asked this question ‘How much would you pay for an RNB magazine? ‘
0%
10% 10%
£1.00
£1.50
£2.00
40% 40% £3.00
£3.00+
According to this pie chart and what my target audience have said in relation to social grade also
I have decided to price my magazine between £1.50 and £2.00 at £1.80, this is because 40% of
the people who did my questionnaire said they would pay £1.50 - £2.00 for an RNB magazine. I
think this price directly represents people whom have a social grade: DE, who I have targetted as
my audience also!
8. Q2. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
After understanding what my audience were willing to pay for an RNB magazine I chose to ask
how often they would buy the magazine bearing in mind they would be paying £1.80 .
10%
20%
Weekly
Everyother Week
Monthly
20% 4th Qtr
50%
I was shocked at my findings when I got my results back as I thought that my audience were the
type to be in the know and want to know the latest news before anybody else. The fact that
they would want my magazine to be published monthly would be cheaper for my magazine as it
wouldn’t cost an awful lot yet to satisfy my readers I would need a lot of information about the
particular month. I was unsure as to whether price was an issue with my magazine somebody
who did my questionnaire said they chose monthly as they don’t have time to read magazines
when they are studying however the odd break doesn’t hurt. I think this strongly represents the
student audience for my magazine.