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

2. Who I have included in my magazine (1) On my front cover, contents and double page spread I have included pictures of my 16 year old friend Ella. As my audience for Zazz is 17-24 I wanted to make her look a tad older, but still a young adult. Regards to her makeup, clothing and hair, I tried to follow a ‘natural’ look that was sophisticated and slightly like Ellie Goulding’s style (pop singer). I left her naturally curly hair as it was but pinned the front back into a quiff for an interesting look, and up into a bun for the contents/double page photos. Her dresses are casual but elegant and fun to represent young adults’ fashion (particularly middle-class girls and upper-working class girls). I avoided completely casual ‘lounge’ clothes because this might attract a lower social group then intended, and the same with avoiding completely sophisticated gowns and suits so I don’t attract a higher social class. Ella has been posed in relaxed, friendly and unintimidating positions which would present a different social group/genre.

3. Who I have included in my magazine (2) I also included 4 other models on my contents page. Each of these models were dressed to portray the same social-group as Ella had been. The poses I used are both glamorous and friendly. The two models shown by the caption ’53’ are slightly underdressed with casual clothes for the type of social group I wanted to represent, and so challenges my representation of a ‘higher’ working class. All of the dresses aren’t revealing at all as this would be considered inappropriate for my age group.

4. Representing my target audience My target audience is 17-24 year old females who are in the C1/B bracket in the socio-economic grading. To represent potential readers, I have chosen a social stereotype of girls that age of that social background to base my model’s looks and magazine feature’s on – bohemian indie chick. With that particular girl in mind, the clothes I used were of certain colours and types, and props such as a guitar and hat were used. Hair was left natural for all models and makeup minimal. The types of features in magazine are all based around music, fashion, styling and gossip which I would consider the group to be interested in. Pages such as ‘Alexa Chung’, who is a style icon, and ‘We love Katy Perry’ indicate what kind of celebrities these girls would like to see in a magazine. The colours used in my magazine (purples, reds, brown tones) all match with both Ella’s dresses and the kind of colours usually associated with bohemian style clothes. An example of someone who might look like they belong in my target audience is Zoey Deschanel (right).

5. Conclusion My magazine represents a free-spirited young female adult audience who are likely to be interested in a bohemian style fashion culture. Most of my magazine supports this, however there is one picture which does not support the dominant ideology about this group. I tried not to challenge ideologies about social groups too much as familiar representations who the audience can relate to is what can ultimately help them buy and enjoy the magazine.