The magazine Semble represents gender equality by portraying men and women in the same serious manner without sexualizing women. It aims to represent diversity among ethnic groups but the first issue only included white artists due to the rock genre's lack of diversity. Semble also represents younger audiences through its experimental music coverage, concert tickets, and energetic design while challenging social group stereotypes by portraying bands in non-traditional styles for their genres.
1. Evaluation of Semble Magazine -How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
Gender
Different genders are represented in the same way in semble magazine. It’s a common
thing in magazines that females are sexualized in photos and men are more serious
and masculine. When planning the photos for semble I thought it would express
semble’s opinion on gender roles by not making the plan any different for a male or a
female.
In this photo from a kerrang cover you can see the flirtatious nature of the woman
(winking) on the cover compared to the photo from another kerrang cover which
portrays a man being very serious. Where in the 2 snapshots from semble you can see
both genders are represented the same.
This is a common example of what is done and has been done in magazines as you can
see from the examples on the right. I don't think this is a fair representation of women
I want to change that.
The house style used by the magazine also represents equality of genders as it has a
very neutral style and the colors used aren’t considered masculine or feminine as well
as the fonts
2. Evaluation of Semble Magazine -How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
Ethnicity
Semble has the same attitude towards different
ethnicity as it did towards gender, and semble strives for
equality when representing other groups and I want
semble to be diverse. I haven’t got an example since the
rock genre is dominated by white artists and there isn’t
any ethnic groups represented in my first issue. Yet if
there was any people from any other ethnicity they
would be represented as if they were a white artist.
3. Evaluation of Semble Magazine -How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
Age
In my magazine I have mainly covered young artists and have house styles and
content suggests that the magazine represents a young age group.
The magazine offers concert tickets, an out going experience, being out going
is something commonly associated with a younger age group.
The content offered within the magazine represents a experimental musical
taste of a young social group.(classic rock as well as punky rock and indie
rock)
You can see very high energy levels from the main image on the double page
spread with very cool hand jesters and bright colours all suggest a younger
generation.
The black and white imagery doesn’t fit the normal conventions of magazines
and the anarchy of challenging conventions matches the anarchistic
behaviour of younger generations.
4. Evaluation of Semble Magazine -How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
Social groups
In Semble’s first issue there was 3 prominent social groups represented
Mods, Hipsters and Punks.
‘Wicked Tricks’ lead singer is wearing clothes associated with Mods
and is therefore represented as a Mod a group not normally associated
with rock, this challenges a social group stereotype.
The clothing of the two members of ‘The Crooked Sons’ are commonly
associated with Indie music and Hipsters, Yet the band actually plays
punk music, this again challenges the social construct of what it means
to be Punk .
The black, white and red color scheme represents colors normally
associated with punks, and there image.
In Semble magazine social groups aren’t represented in the
stereotypical way so the magazine can reach a wider audience and not
be just for Punks or just for Rockers.