This document discusses how the media product represents particular social groups through facial expressions and images used. It represents younger people, teenagers and those in their 20s, as more expressive through wide eyes and shouting facial expressions on the cover. It includes one woman to represent both genders. Shot types and lighting are used to represent artists as talented yet mysterious. Costumes like leather jackets represent rebelling personalities that some audiences may relate to. The media product would be distributed through both print and digital formats. Print distribution could occur in music shops in the UK and US that older audiences frequent. Digital distribution would leverage social media that 78% of 30-49 year olds and 90% of 18-29 year old

1. Q2) How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
Media Coursework Evaluation

2. • I think that my photo’s in the magazine is similar in representation to those in Kerrang!.
Considering facial expressions, as it is ranged from perhaps shouting or expressive facial
expressions for people in their teens - 20’s, and these expressions are more common to male
rock stars. Smiling / serious faces when it comes to people in older ages such as 30’s more
often . I tried to incorporate some of these expressions within social groups. The person in
the cover has his eyes wide open, connoting an extreme expression, and he is of a young age.
I made the facial expression of a young musician in the contents page very extreme as well,
so the audiences get the representation that people as young as him are very energetic and
perhaps, out of control. I also realised that in most of their magazine covers, they featured
somewhere, a woman singer/musician/writer, although most of the stories were those of
male stars. By doing this, they represent both genders as equal, and connotes that both
genders are welcome as audiences. This, I did not think about when taking images, because
nearly all of my images are of males. But because of this, there may be more male target
audiences buying my magazine than females, or perhaps if females are looking for male stars
that they like, it may serve their entertainment.

3. • The facial expression of the main image on front cover, is similar to those of Kerrang!’s. For
example, in one of the magazine covers, although the facial expression of a rock star is
serious, his eyes are open quite widely, with an unusual body language. This may represent
the mysteriousness of middle-aged people, but wanting to be found/have attention
somewhere inside. Therefore for my magazine cover, although the model is still in his
teenage, his facial expression is very similar to the Kerrang magazine cover model. This is to
show the audience, the maturity of the star as well as the sense of humour that he has. This
kind of personality attracts audiences, especially those who seek an inspiration or perhaps,
escapism.
• Hair style wise, both my model and Kerrang’s model’s hair is quite long, as perhaps this is the
stereotype of a rock star. On the other hand, the same model in my dps has short hair, but
resembling those of old rock n roll stars. This may represent him as being very fashionable as
well as being able to fit into any era’s- therefore timeless, because the two contrasting hair
styles get’s across to the audiences as no matter how the looks change, this star is still who
he is. Therefore these images which represents teenage groups, can be informative for some
audiences.

4. • The shot type and angle plays a vital part in my representation of artists. For example, in my
magazine cover, the main image is a low angle shot, which makes the model look superior or
more like a rock star. This shot angle was perfect to make him look like he is a talented
musician, as well as representing him as having an unusual type of an open character, as I
explained above before. For the shot type I chose a medium long shot, in order to represent
him as being tall / to show to the consumers, how he handles guitars, which helps to
illustrate his talent in music at the same time. For my contents page, there are two images of
close-ups, contrasting in shot angles as the younger boy has a slight low angle shot, showing
that again he is out of control, and at the bottom, the feature model with a mocking-sort of
serious facial expression, at eye-level. This may represent who is suitable for this magazine,
as younger age is represented as being extreme, as I mentioned earlier. But at the same time,
younger aged people know about entertainment, or perhaps better at entertaining others.
Therefore the audience may expect these people to be humourous, or entertaining in the
magazine. However the second close-up image is at eye-level, which may connote that teen-
aged people are perhaps treated as an equal or that the model himself is mature enough to
be respected. For the dps, I chose to use a close-up image of the same model because the
audiences will then focus on his facial expression, and wonder what he is thinking about,
being encouraged to read the article. It is also iin a little bit of a high angle, in order to clearly
capture his hair style and his facial expression.

5. • Originally the model on the cover had quite a high key lighting, but I turned down a little bit
in order to fit to the environment, as well as not making it appear too high quality because
this is a magazine in older days, in the 1990’s. None of my images are very low key lighting,
except possibly the one with the two boys and a piano. It is low key because I wanted to
represent the scene as being secretive, or to communicate that they are preparing or hiding
something. This will increase the curiosity of the audiences, as well as reminding them that a
surprise from children is always something to look forward to, seen in the boys’ facial
expressions.. The image in my dps is not of a too low key lighting, but it helps to enhance the
text around the image, and to have a good balance of the image serving as a background, as
well as a Centre of Visual Interest at the same time.

6. • The choice of costumes had an effect in the representation of the featured artists. The artist
in the main image in the cover is wearing a black leather jacket, although not very noticeable.
This sort of jackets represents rebelling, or perhaps a self-centered character. However, it
may also represent the capabilities of not going against one’s own will and being strong
mentally. As I mentioned before, audiences who are seeking help or escapism is perhaps
attracted to these sort of representation. On the other hand, the choice of costume in the
dps of the same person, is similar but a little bit more casual. This represents that stars are
still people too, and makes the audiences feel as if they are a part of something. Some may
even relate to this costume, and feel like a rock musician themselves. So the choice of
costume leads perhaps to audience satisfaction.

7. Q3) What kind of media institution
might distribute your media product
and why?

8. • My music magazine is an old 80/90’s rock n roll genre. Although this is targeted towards both
teenagers and people up to their 40’s, because of the content it is most likely to call appeal to
those in the older generations. Therefore, in terms of locations, US would be the best, but in
the UK, music shops or even Tesco’s/WHSmiths in London would be good because the music
genre is quite popular and famous, and these sort of shops are the most popular markets
that all sorts of people go to. As my target audiences is quite a range, I think it would be
suitable. in terms of shops, places like ‘Guitar guitar’ has shops all over the UK, and that
would be suitable as well because there are going to be a range from teens to adult
consumers coming to the shop, and there are lots of scores of old rock n roll music, so the
shop is targeting those who like this genre of music. However, they don’t sell magazines so
it’s not going to be that easy.

9. • Digital technology is going to take part in my distribution, because I know that although
stereotypically older generations (40’s/50’s) don’t use the internet as much as the teenagers
nowadays, actually 78% of those aged 30-49 does use social networking, and 90% of those
aged 18 - 29 uses it also. Therefore, there is no way that the internet and social networking
would not play a large part in the distribution of my magazine. Other than social networking
sites such as facebook and twitter, if I had the money I may create an app for the magazine
for iphones, because mobile phones became an important part of people’s lives, and apple’s
iphone 5s/5c is currently the most bought and popular phone types in the UK. However, it
would cost me from around £297 - over £5000 to create an iphone app. I could even create a
digital magazine instead of a print. For the availability of the magazine, I think it’s a good idea
to keep it fortnightly or monthly because the consumers will develop hopefully a habit of
buying the magazine, as well as having time to gather more news and information to put into
the magazine, creating a high quality content as a result. In this way, the consumers will
wonder what’s going to be on next in the magazine too.

10. • Institution wise, I think publishers who does not already have an old-rock n roll genre
magazine would be ideal. Bauer Media, which is also a publisher of Kerrang, as well as the
owner of a radio station: Magic 105.4, who streams old rock/pop music. This publisher
already has quite a few rock genre magazines, such as: ‘Q’ and ‘MOJO’, as well as Kerrang!.
However, both Q and Mojo magazine has contemporary information about contemporary
bands, whereas my information is trying to dig out old information and improve it, as well as
some new information on new bands. Also considering that Bauer Media already has
Kerrang!, it’s not a good idea to publish through this institution. Therefore publishers such as
Future PLC would be good, because I can make full use of tablets and smartphones as well as
selling my magazine through print. This institution does sell music magazines, but it does not
have any of the sort like a rock n roll music magazine. It only has a drumming and a guitar
magazine. Therefore, there is a chance that my magazine would stand out through this
publisher. Also, IPC media publishes magazines through different platforms including prints,
and this publisher is well known. As there are no other music magazines here that has an
oldie-content like mine, it also may be an ideal publisher.