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

2. Country Music Genre
The Country music genre itself is typically
associated with images of breaking
up/divorce, getting drunk, depression, and in
general negative things. I decided that, while I
was including some aspects of this in my double
page spread, I wanted to represent these
aspects negatively so as not to promote them
myself – hence the artist discusses them as
though they are bad, and speaks about his
recovery.

3. Aspirational Values
I wanted the audience to be able to read the
magazine, and take something away with them –
some sort of moral message – I suppose the
message I delivered (I hope) would be to stay away
from drugs and alcohol as they are dangerous and
can change your life. Since the target audience of
my magazine is already quite old, the aspirational
values may not be applied as much. However, they
may aspire to have the success of the artists they
read about in the magazine in their own lives.

4. Language
In my main article, the language I use is
informal, as though the interview were a
conversation happening in front of the reading
audience, this is because I did not want the
audience to feel alienated while reading the
magazine, I wanted them to be relaxed and
comfortable reading it so that they would not be
discouraged to buy it again.

5. Images
The images are crucial in portraying your social
group. Unfortunately, I could not get anyone in the
age range of my target audience that would better
suit the aspirational values, and had to improvise
using someone of a much younger age (although
the age is increased in the magazine to some
extent). While this is not a huge problem, as the
representation still stands through the stereotype
used in the images, it may make the magazine less
relatable to the target audience. If I had more time I
would certainly look for an older talent.

6. Conclusion
Ultimately, I would like to think that I
represented my social group positively. I have
attempted to stick to the genre throughout, and
discourage the negative aspects of the genre in
order to promote the positive values of country
music; family, unity, hard work, etc. Perhaps it
would have been better to not stick to
stereotypes so much, but it makes it clear that
the magazine is of the country music genre.