HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?Evaluation Question 2

THE FRONT COVER

Model For my image on my front cover my model is

in a photography studio to create a blank, empty background. I decided not to have a scenic background as I didn’t want it to interfere with my models pose. I decided to dress my model in black jeans, with a black top and a white shirt that has been left undone. This is one of the latest fashions at the moment and helps to show my target social group as they would be likely to want to dress in a similar style. Leaving the shirt undone allowed my model to be able to move the top around and hold the collar to add ‘swag’ to the image. My model is positioned to the side but giving eye contact to the audience which could show how young adults have a lot of confidence. Additionally, my model has quite a seductive, serious pose but still shows a friendly personality.

THE FRONT COVER Mise-en-scene The mise-en-scene on the front cover

is located at photography studio, however, this would not be clear to an audience. Equipment that was used were a camera, studio lighting and a flash gun although this is unseen in the image. I have used a mid-shot of my model so that the pose is shown to the audience. I have used a simple colour theme of black, white and red , but these colours are in fashion right now and my targeted social group will be wearing these kinds of contrasting colours. Furthermore, the connotations of red can be love and intimacy which links in will with the seductive look. My models clothing matches in with the colour theme and some people will be wearing similar outfits to the model as some of my targeted social group of 13-25 will be keeping up with the latest trend.

THE FRONT COVER Fonts I decided to stick with some simple

bold fonts for my magazine. By doing this my text will stand out and be able to be read from a distance. My masthead is in a bold font. I used black so that the text would stand out to the best of its ability. By the font being extremely bold it becomes one of the main focus points on the page which entices people to be attracted to the magazine. For most of my text I used ‘Eurostile’ as I am quite fond of the style of the text and it matches my simple font theme. Someone between the ages of my targeted social group would not be interested in fancy text as they want to know what the words say quickly without having to keep working it out as they will get bored and put the magazine down.

THE FRONT COVER

Representing my target audience

My front cover represents my target social group by a variety of things. The colours and simplicity of the cover. My layout is not to busy to the eye which makes the magazine more attractive to its audience as 13-25 do not want to read lots they want something short and simple to draw them in. Next there is the clothing she is wearing which is quite obvious to my social group. The extremely confident eye contact with the audience represents young adults these days as they are becoming more confident in themselves.

THE FRONT COVER

Challenge or support representation?

My product supports some dominant ideas about my target social group. The confidence from the eye contact to the audience shows that people now are more confident in themselves. This can lead to people being over confident and getting into trouble for it which would challenge the representation. However, my magazine presents a confident but friendly model which can be seen by the audience.

THE CONTENTS PAGE

Fonts and colour For my contents page I decided to fill

the space but still keeping it simple. I used the same masthead text from the front page for the ‘contents’ text to keep to the same style and I keep with the ‘Eurostile’ font for the rest of the texts apart from the sectioning headings. By keeping the fonts the same I am following a consistent style which creates a more professional finish. The colour theme is the same, black, white and red with some blue which comes from the image of my guitar, All the colours stand out well against the pure white background.

THE CONTENTS PAGE

Representing my target audience

My contents page represents my target social group by a few different things, Although I do not have an image of my model on the page I have my own image of my guitar which shows that some people from my target audience would like to learn how to play an instrument. I have kept the text to a minimum writing as little as I could but still including the vital information for the reader to buy the magazine and continue reading as some of my targeted social group can be stereotyped as ‘lazy’.

THE CONTENTS PAGE

Have I done anything different to the

Representations of my magazines

Genre? For my front cover I followed ‘Vibe’

magazines style as they are of an R&B genre. However for my contents page I decided that I wanted the page to have a bit more writing on it. So I followed ‘Q’ magazines style contents page which is not of the same genre. However, I feel that it works well with my magazine.

THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Model My model has four different images on

this page as I wanted to show her different personalities and not just the seductive post on the front. I decided to change the opacity of one of the images and place It behind the text as it is a cute, friendly image. For the rest of the images my model is still posing but it smiling and not being as seductive which is what I want for inside the magazine as I would of alreadyy of got the readers attention. Her clothing is slightly similar to the front cover however she is wearing a different coloured shirt and a plain top to show off some different fashions at the moment.

THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Fonts and colour For my double page spread I keep the all

of the fonts to ‘Eurostile’ keepingg to a consistent style for a professional look. The only different font is the text as the top, ‘Shannon’ as I wanted this to stand out slightly more so people know who it is. My font sizes to change a few times as the title is in a larger font so people know some rough ideas about the text. I also used pull quotes in a larger font to entice the audience to read the interview.The colours I used stick to the colour theme and are not too overpowering. The colours also stand out against my model on the background with no difficulty reading the text.

THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Representing my target audience

My double page spread represents my targeted social group as I am showing different fashions through the clothing that my model is wearing as this shows what teenagers and young adults are wearing at the current time. I tried to keep the questions I asked short and sweet but enough to find out some gossip from my model as my targeted social group do enjoy some gossip.I used a lot of images on the page as it is known that this generation of people prefer to view images than read texts so by having a lot of images it keeps the reader engaged in what they are reading.