This document discusses how the media product, a magazine called Re/Verb, represents particular social groups. It aims the magazine at teenagers and young adults who are part of the "emo" and "grunge" subcultures. The chaotic layout, dark color scheme, and images of mournful artists are meant to appeal to these groups who see themselves as individuals. While the magazine features artists of different genders and races, the aggressive red and black colors may put off some female readers. The magazine also targets young people with high disposable incomes through its slick design and images of artists in expensive clothing.

1. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My product, like any other media product, is created for a specific audience to
whom it will most likely sell best. I have had to consider social factors such as
age, social niche, gender/race and class/status, deciding whom I want to tailor
my magazine for, and how best to do so.
Age group: Re/Verb is designed to be read primarily by teenagers and young
adults, though it does not intend to exclude older audiences
so long as they have a passion for the genre. Teens are
stereotypically known for being very untidy, emotional and
generally chaotic as they go through all the wonderful
changes puberty brings, so I have tried to reflect this attitude with the
design of my magazine. Such simple factors as offset angling text on the
front cover or using distorted fonts are good examples of this. I tried not
to line features up too precisely for the same reason.
Classically, magazines for older audiences such as Q contain vast amounts of
written text, which is oftentimes unnecessary, and can often appear quite
cluttered as a result. The points they make are often very well thought out and
take up a lot of page space, but I don’t feel this approach would be appropriate
for a younger audience. Although the youth of today are exposed to lots of
different information sources, the actual information they get is usually very
concise in its presentation. For fear of over facing my readers who may find large
amounts of text and description a “turn off”, I have opted to use very short
descriptions of all of my features on the front and contents pages. This
has resulted in me using nonstandard prose throughout my magazine
(i.e. it wouldn’t make sense in spoken conversation), but in the context
of my magazine, I feel it still makes sense and is the most efficient way
to get my readers interested and informed.
Obviously, the main article can not be so compressed, but I think that
any reader interested enough to want to know about the subject
matter will have the patience to read through it. I have tried to write
the article in a fairly entertaining and personal fashion to prevent
young readers from getting bored, but I feel that I could have cut it
down more, as the page feels quite overbearing upon first glance.
Other age-specific features include the playful font and colour choices,
and relatively non-technical language featured in the main article. Had
I written for an older audience, they could be expected to know more
complex lexis and I would have written accordingly.
Social Niche: I have aimed my magazine at the “emo”/”grunge” groups which
are prevalent in today’s youth society. Speaking honestly, I made this decision
upon the bearing that I enjoyed their associated music at the beginning of this
project, but more thought went into it than that. These groups are known for
being very “100%” in their social devotion, and so will be more likely than most
to want to invest in a magazine which expresses their personalities. They are

2. also heavily associated with music, so I thought who better to cater a music
magazine to than a group who are almost guaranteed to unanimously love music.
My product heavily represents the alt-rock scene in its jumbled, chaotic layout.
The costumes of the artists and the attitudes they portray in the images relates
to the way this audience tend to live their lives. My interviews told me that these
people loved the genre as it allowed them to display their individuality, so I have
tried to make the magazine stand out from standard convention. The artists
expressions are the first things readers will look at when they see the front
cover, so I have tried to relate to them by posing my artists with expressions
reminiscent of the mournful expressions which characterise the social circles.
Gender/Race: I did not want to exclude any gender or race from
reading my publication, which is why I featured artists of both
different genders and racial backgrounds on my front cover.
It could be said that the red and black colour scheme is quite
aggressive typically masculine, but I feel that female members of my
target social group are rarely associated with being “girly girls”.
Studies do show that men buy music magazines more commonly
anyway, so it does not matter too much if a small number of women
feel put off, but I would much prefer them not to, as gender equality
is increasingly important in today’s society.
Class/Status: The magazine is aimed at young,
affluent people with high disposable income so the models I
used are young, with expensive looking clothing. The
magazine’s design seems slick and professional, catering to
the higher-class aspects of my intended audience’s personas
and its dark, dramatic style is reminiscent of their deep
personal struggles, as are commonly associated with this
audience (they’re often very overdramatic).
That said, some of the fonts and styles I used appear slightly “dirty” or “worn”,
which may appeal to lower class readers. This is incredibly presumptuous, but it
was on my mind during production and I feel
that although not terribly PC, there are many
hard truths about business trends, especially in
the magazine business as I discovered in my
research.