Media

1. Evaluation – Q2
How does your media product
represent particular social groups?

2. Representation within my magazine
As we can see on the front cover, my magazine
represents both genders. By having the guy as
the cover model, the male gender slightly
dominates this issue’s front cover. I directed
the female to give me a ‘serious’ look, so even
though the image of the her is small, the
powerful stare somewhat balance who have
the upper hand. The male gender is
stereotypical seen on as the one with the most
power, but I have lightly challenged this trough
these front cover photos.

3. Age
Identified age for my
audience: 16-22
Through my survey I found
out that 16-22 is the age
group of my audience.
Therefore I’ve been having
focus on how I am
representing and adressing
youngsters in my magazine. I
wanted a good
representation, that atracted
and inspired my target
audience. To help me do this, I
looked back on my audience
survey and magazine analysis.

4. Age group
My magazine is a celebration of the younger
generation. It presents them as the inspirational,
driven innovators of the world. Communicated by
words as ‘brilliant’, partly formal dressing(2) and the
body language of a serious person(3), my magazines
representation of youngsters goes against the anti-
social yobs stereotype that many use when
portraying teenagers in media. As we can read in the
article on the DPS, Hans represents his age-group in
a positive way, which is appealing to the audience.
Throughout the article, Hans talks about his dreams
and challenges in a humorous language. The article
is written in a style that represent his social group as
serious and passionate, whilst keeping the silly,
humorous trait associated with this age group.
3
3
2
1

5. Gender
The text is not the only element giving the representation. On all the pages,
there is a different picture of the cover model. The womanizer is dressed all
black, in casual trousers and sneakers, yet formal wearing a dress shirt. This
builds on the image of the age group 17-22, representing them as relaxed, yet
serious. I chose not to have the stereotypical representation of gender.
Nowadays the line between the gender roles are getting more blurred. The
photos on the front page goes against the belief saying males needs to be
super masculine and women to show as much of her feminine characteristics
as possible. It communicates a relaxed view on gender and what is good
enough to define oneself as one or other. Still the photographs partly hang on
to the stereotypical view on gender, to a small extent. On the small picture in
the right-hand corner, the female is dressed in a pink sweater you wouldn’t
expect on a guy. In addition the woman is wearing girly make-up and necklace.
But considering my audience, the genders are not presented with extreme
inequalities and as we can see on the front cover the power role in the
relationship between male and female is more or less balanced. As many
teenagers look up to celebrities as role models, I wanted the female to be
strong, confident and independent. By giving such a type of representations, I
am challenging the stereotype of women that say they are weak, helpless and
unstable. The latter portray is not the one that my target audience would like
to identify themselves with as being a part of the female group.
Black
Serious,
yet relaxed
Not extreme feminin
or masculin
Confident and
strong
Slightly
stereotypical
feminin
but..

6. Who’s represented/displayed
Fronted by names as Metallica and Oasis, older musicians are
displayed together with the newer once, communicating that
LOUD appreciate a wide variety of quality rock, regardless of
the age of the artist or group. In my research, I found out that
on rock magazines front page, both older and newer
artists/groups are featured and overall they’re given equally
much attention. Age seems to have less to say when it comes
to the rock and roll audience, as long as the music is good, rock
enthusiast listen to you. Based on this and my audience survey,
LOUD presents both old and new artists and bands. On this
issues front page the older once are only represented trough
some of the cover lines, but would in other issues be the cover
model. The feature of older groups builds on the
representation of of my audience age group, as it shows their
versatile than the stereotypical view has it. But the
representation of the older groups/artist are not there just to
build on the representation of the age group, they’re also there
to actract and adress my target audience. Still there is slightly
more featuring of the newer and younger groups and artists, as
research showed they’re a bit more appealing to my target
audience.

7. Youngsters
Youngsters are the age group that is most represented on this issue
front cover. They are represented as fun (through a funny and
ironic style to their language), serious and goal oriented (through
the content of the text of the DPS, the costumes and body
language) and confident (through the body language). This
challenges the view that stereotypically sees them as helpless,
passive and insincere. The body language of the female, which I
talked about earlier regarding representation of the gender, does
in addition add to the representation of youngsters. It builds on
the image of them being serious and meaning business. Together
with the cover model they paint a picture of the age group as
someone whom are able to achieve something great and willing to
fight for their goals.