This document summarizes how the magazine represents different social groups. It targets teenagers and males as its main audiences. To appeal to teenagers, it features young artists between 16-23 as role models. To appeal to males, it focuses mainly on male bands and uses bold colors and stereotypically masculine imagery. It targets working-class readers through working-class characters, informal writing styles, and content featuring rebellion. It aims to have diversity by featuring non-white artists to break stereotypes of rock music appealing only to whites.
1. 2. How does my magazine represent a
particular social group?
On my front cover I have used an image of a teenager who is new to the fame and fortune that has
come with this new career, by using this image it will appeal mainly to teenagers and they will
enjoy reading and listening about someone that‟s their age, because they feel like they can relate
and have something in common with them, which will create a feel of closeness.
I made the model in this image connote a rock star vibe by the way he is posing with the rock
hand gesture and the attire he is wearing, which was a long dark gothic jacket, I then also
photoshoped a tattoo on his hand, because tattoos are associated with rock n roll.
In my magazine I have represented four main social groups; age, gender, ethnicity and social class.
Gender
The characters included are mainly male bands and solo artists. All of the models are male, the
only slight female involvement in my magazine is from the mixed gender band „My mellow
ministry‟ which I had come up with.
This suggests that the male gender is more significant, this theme commonly occurs in other
magazines of my genre such as; Kerrang! This is because rock magazines have a male dominated
audience.
The few rock magazines that I had researched had a large number of male audience that is why for
my magazine, although it was aimed at a vast audience, the majority of consumers will most likely
be males. This is because I have represented a large significance on males and what would appeal
to males more, because I am a male myself, I found this much more simple.
I also used stereotypes to allow me to represent males from my target audience in a manner that
they would appreciate, and have a better understanding of what appeals to males, for example, the
colour scheme I have chosen is red, white and black.
Males are stereotypically assertive, dominating and strong and the colours I used are bold,
interesting and striking, which have connotations to these stereotypes.
2. Social class
For this social group, my target audience would preferably be for the working class. This goes
well to suit the main character, because of his fairly recent rise to fame and fortune as opposed
to when he was too, from a working class background.
As well as representing working class through characters, I have also represented working
class through photography (image manipulation), costume, writing style and also the actual
content that is written, a perfect example of this would be in the article on the double page
spread, the interviewer does not speak in a formal and posh way, this is also to give a sense of
trust to the interviewee so that they may give more open and honest answers.
I used simple fonts and an informal writing style throughout as a stereotype of the working
class is that they are less educated. I have used images which connote rebellion such as untidy
hair and facial hair that has not been trimmed neatly, serious facial expressions, and confident
open body language and passionate hand gestures. I also emphasised the sense of rebellion by
using Photoshop to put a tattoo on the back of my models hand which says „Freedom‟ and an
image of the outline of a bird.
Also some of the content can connote rebellion for example; on the front cover it says “is this
article about me on drugs again?” which foreshadows that he has went through some sort of
downfall recently which any audience would be interested in.
3. Age
The average age of the characters feature in my magazine is from 16 to around 23 which I
found, is increasing in existing artists, so because this magazine contains artists who are of the
younger generation, it will appeal more towards the younger generation.
I have done this so that the audience that is of that age gains more hope in what the can
achieve and also so that they can be looked up to and seen as role models in some aspects of
their lives, because teenagers are looking up to celebrities at a younger age and at a
considerable rate.
A younger audience is stereotypically less educated and more informal, so I adapted to this by
using simple sentences and some appropriate „slang‟ when necessary such as „Hmm‟.
Stereotypically teenagers are more attracted by images and things they do not have to focus
much on, but I challenged this convention because my magazine is for the reader who is
devoted to what they believe in and like, so although the language was kept simple, the text
was increased for maximum information on what the audience wants to know.
Increased
Text
4. Ethnicity
My main images are taken of a non white male, the main reason I chose to this is because
some of the most successful rock stars where not from all white countries such as Aerosmith
who was originally from Argentina.
Another reason I chose to do this is because a stereotype of teenagers is that they are narrow
minded, and a stereotype for rock music is that rock stars are commonly white. I wanted to
break both of these stereotypes by using the same method (2 birds with one stone). So by doing
this my magazine will appeal to a wider and diverse audience.
My magazine is not monocultural because it is aimed at a diverse audience and welcomes
every different ethnicity, culture and religion to have something in common and share their
appreciation for this genre of music.
Like class, I have presented this through elements that have connotations of confidence and
therefore independence such as the colour scheme, facial and body language and mise en scene
of photography.
None
Are
White