How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Samantha King

Representation

These are some examples of the photographs captured to potentially be displayed within my magazine product. The performer is posing for the camera, this expresses the personality of that reflected within the rock culture, deviating the social norms and rebelling against traditional conventions, i.e. rather than angelically smiling for the camera, a traditional convention of society, the performer is captured to be screaming with aggression. The performer is also a young adult, perhaps the same age as some of my potential consumers or slightly younger, this could perhaps make her admirable to the individuals reaching the older end of my age bracket, as females may wish they were younger again and the males may be attracted to her, as my audience is predominately conventional and straight oppose to being homosexual.

Representation

My female model is presented in a very rebellious way which complement my magazine and its features. This completely subverts the usual stereotypes of womanly, unforceful behaviours. She is illustrating a very assertive representation by the stance and facial expressions she displays herself. These challenge traditional stereotypes of women as being introvert and also gracious. My target audience is predominantly white males and therefore this imagery is more likely to appeal to them and attract them to the product.

Representation

In my magazine there was no inclusion of a range of diverse ethnic groups. I decided to exclude these representations within my product due to the fact that the rock culture isn’t primarily supported by diverse ethnic groups and has a predominantly white fan base, particularly male. I have presented a female cover star on my cover page to ultimately attract and invite the male audience to be intrigued of the features and contents interiorly. Also, in terms of production, this was fabricated within the York area, of which is a largely white city. This product then reflects this, through the way in which it has being produced. As you can see within my product, as a result, my performers are white and have no ethnic diversity.

Representation

The age group I have identified in my magazine completely supports existing stereotypes in society. The personality of the performers within the imagery of my product reflected that of what it noticed within the rock culture, deviating the social norms and rebelling against traditional conventions, this is typically expected from the young care free generation of today and therefore conforms with this stereotype of 15-25 year olds, my approximate target audience consumer bracket.

RepresentationMy performers, in the same way as my audience, can be defined by their social class.

The dominant social class for the rock genre and more distinctively in product is middle class.

I am working with stereotypical ideas to create my target audience, when referring to class it can be difficult to define when dealing with a younger group of people.

Class is generally dictated by the jobs that people do, yet my consumers tend to be young with no over powering responsibilities.

So, because younger demographics often do not have a job role, it can be hard to define them.

In the case of 15-20 year olds particularly, they are defined by the job roles of their parents.

RepresentationThere are several broad generalisations that we can draw about class, in particular the different between working and middle class.

Working class generally have a lower standard of education, more likely to be unemployed, more likely to live in council/social housing, have a lower life expectancy, have families earlier, come from single parent families, be an ethnic minority, more likely to be ‘poor’, more likely to be involved in crime, more likely to have low status job, more likely to have a manual job.

In contrast to this, middle class generally have a higher standard of education, more likely to be in work, more likely to own their own home, have a longer life expectancy, have families later, come from a stable family background, be white, more likely to be rich, less likely to be involved in crime, more likely to have an important job or manage people, more likely to work in an office.

My audience generally conform to the aspects of the stereotypical middle class character. This is reflects through the rock culture, as previously mentioned they tend to be of a monocultural white family background and have a stable amount of income of which they can then use to purchase magazines like my product Crank!

McQuail (1987) gives some common reasons for media use.

Information finding out about relevant events and

conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world

seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices

satisfying curiosity and general interest learning; self-education

Personal Identity finding reinforcement for personal

values finding models of behaviour identifying with valued other (in the

media) Integration and Social Interaction

gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy

identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging

finding a basis for conversation and social interaction

having a substitute for real-life companionship

Entertainment escaping, or being diverted, from

problems relaxing getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic

enjoyment

My audience would use my product for personal identity. The music market, especially rock genre, demonstrate reinforcement of personal values, and models of behaviour, this is reflected greatly through my photography imagery, through the stance and poses demonstrating the attitude of my cover star and thereby my audience.

Also, my product would be of interest to my audience for integration and social interaction, this allows them to gain and insight into the circumstances of others; social empathy, this is again reflected through the photography imagery, as demonstrated on my contents page, the image is taken from a live event, this allows my audience to gain an insight into the circumstance of the performer themselves, giving them a sense of belonging.

Also, an additional reason why my consumers may be attracted to my product could be due to the simple entertainment value, giving them a sense of escapism, being diverted from their problems, relaxing and getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment. This creates a representation of my audience as a group who are isolated and separate from others and use my product to create an identity and take part in common shared culture with others who are also isolated and separated.