How Does My Media Product
Represent Particular Social Groups?
My target audience
The target audience for my magazine is teenage girls between the ages of 15-19 years old. Pop and gossip magazines are read by my target audience when they have spare time and want to relax. I decided to choose a pop magazine as it is a well known genre that is recognised by almost anyone. My target audience enjoys gossip and loves keeping up to date with the latest tracks. In order to find this information I carried out some research and asked my target audience who their favourite singer is, what they expect to find in a magazine and what their hobbies are. By knowing who I am targeting I was able to style my magazine and use images that could represent my target audience. For further inspiration and ideas I did some market research and looked at existing magazines that would be competition. From this I noticed that most pop magazines have a female artist on the front. This is because majority of teenage girls have someone they admire and would want themselves being similar to one day.
Representing A Social Group
In order to represent a particular social group I had to stereotype so that it was clear that my pop magazine was one that they could relate to. For instance, the prominent colour of my magazine is pink which suggests that most teenage girls are feminine. I also wanted to represent my audience as confident people which is why the font for my masthead is quite bold and big. By having a female artist on the front also connotes that my audience are confident and it suggests that women stick together. The female artist also appears to be joyful and entertaining which shows that this is what most girls want to be like. Overall, I think that my magazine represents a social group of girly and confident teenage females who enjoy having fun.
Front cover image
Contents page image
Thumbnail on my double page spread
The Artist featured in my magazine
I think it is important for readers to relate to the artist on a magazine as it is what attracts them to buy it. The artist on my magazine is very glamorous with her fur jacket and jewellery. These types of clothes and accessories are and effective way to appeal to my target audience. I also included a thumbnail on my double page spread of my artist on her phone. I made this decision as my audience spend most of their time on their phone or social networking. This shows that the artist is someone they can relate to and she is just like them. The fact that the artist is looking straight into the camera shows that she is not shy and that she is a confident person that my audience can look up to. I also chose to use a mid shot as it is effective in showing off what the model is wearing but it also enables us to see her emotions which allows the audience to feel connected to the artist on the cover.The use of mid shot also shows that the model is not afraid to be in the spotlight and this self-assurance is something that my audience admire. The fact that the artist is young also means that the audience can relate to her instead of feeling misunderstood which is often the case for teenagers.
From looking at the images that I used I think that my magazine does represent my target audience accurately as it includes girlie and confident aspects as well as the technology aspects that my audience enjoy. I purposely chose to represent my audience in this way as it shows that they are fun and enjoy socialising and relaxing with their friends instead of the other stereotype of moody teenagers. Due to this my magazine should appeal to and attract my target audience.