Evaluation question 2

1. Evaluation Question 2
How does your media
product represent
particular social
groups?
Nathaniel Henri-Williams

2. What is a social group
A social group is where a certain group of people share
the same or similar interests and have a similar lifestyle.
It’s important that I know what type of social groups would
be interested reading and buying my magazine. I need to
be aware of who the magazine is going to attract, so that
the cover contents, DPS and other conventions such as
the feature article and coverlines/stories are appealing.
Since these social groups make up part of my intended
target audience.

3. My target audience/social group
I will be targeting a niche audience that will include both males and
females but mainly males in the age bracket of 18-35. The reason for
targeting mainly males is that the Hip-Hop industry is an industry that is
heavily dominated by male artists.
The reason for targeting this specific niche age group is that after
conducting research into similar magazines such as Fader and Vibe I
have found that they target similar age groups in particular Fader
Magazine who is very modern stylish magazine, with their first official
publication in 2000. Fader is one of the leading magazines for
emerging music in general not just Hip-Hop and is highly popular at the
moment.
My target audience will also target people who are part of the working
population that range from low to upper/middle class as Hip-Hop as a
genre relates to many people of many different ethnicities, religions and
backgrounds.

4. My Magazine cover

5. Class
The social class that my magazine represent is people who are part of
the working population that range from low to upper/middle class.
I feel that my magazine shows this & represents these social classes
through the artist featured “Lil Lim”. Who tell us of his journey from
poverty to fame.
In his feature article the artist talks about his childhood and how he grew
up as an illegal immigrant in Korea Town LA after emigrating from
Panama, the place of his birth with his younger sister an mother to join
their father in the US.
I feel that my artist’s story can relate these social classes and to a lot of
people who left their homes in foreign countries to migrate to places like
the US and the UK to better their lives and follow their dreams.
These people often started out poor and worked hard to be able to
provide for themselves and their families, this links to and represents all
social classes but especially the lower/ working class who started off low
in the class system and made their way up through hard work.
This is why my magazine’s target audience class wise is large ranging
from low to upper/middle class.
This is also because Hip-Hop as a genre relates to many people of
many different ethnicities, religions and backgrounds.

6. Race
Though Hip Hop is a predominantly black genre of music
with a high majority of its fans and listeners being black
(mostly African American). The genre tends not to be
specific to one race of people and is largely open for
enjoyment by all regardless, of race, ethnicity and
background.
Although the core race that my magazine represents as a
social group would be the black or Latino(Hispanic)
cultures/races that hip-hop originated from.
However it can not be said that hip-hop culture only
represents these races as hip-hop is much more than a
bunch of stereotypes of certain cultures it represents all
cultures as its such a diverse genre of music.

7. Gender
The social group that my magazine represents gender
wise is males. This conforms to hip-hop magazine
conventions as the majority of hip-hop magazines target
audiences are males ageing from (18 to around 35).
This is why its common to see more male artists on the
cover of hip-hop magazines than females.
Also although my target audience includes both males
and females, I feel that the social group it represents the
most would be males as firstly my cover artist is male,
secondly hip-hop is a male dominated genre from the
roots all the way to the top with the majority of artists and
people in the industry with important roles such as label
owners and music directors, being male.

8. Sexuality
 In terms of sexuality my magazine would
best represent heterosexual males and
females as my target audience includes
both males and females ageing from 18 to
35. Furthermore in the industry it is
uncommon to hear about artists being
homosexual and being homosexual is very
controversial in the hip-hop/rap industry and
culture.