QUESTION 2.

How does your media product represent

particular social groups?

WHO WAS MY TARGET AUDIENCE?

Predominantly white males

Aged between 17-25

College level education (depending on the age)

At around B/ C2 on the social class scale.

The lifestyle of my target audience would include: going to gigs/ festivals.

Has a disposable income

TARGET AUDIENCE

I chose my target audience to be predominantly white males because this is what is already seen within the media already. Successful bands and magazines within this genre are/ target white males. Furthermore there are more well known male rock bands in the industry as opposed to female, therefore a male audience would be able to relate more to the (majority) people shown in the magazine.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The target age range would be 17-25 as this age group has a more disposable income and possibly more free time. For example, they may not have bills to pay, children, a partner or possibly even a job. If the target audience is older they may have these factors in their life.

A college level education or possibly someone mid way through University level may have different interests to someone older with a degree, full time job and family.

REPRESENTATION: AGE

The age group of the people photographed within my magazine are within the target audience age range, this makes the target audience relate more to the people in the magazine. However there is also mention of older bands such as Black Sabbath who could appeal to some of the older target audience, perhaps even the younger audience too. The band on the front cover and double page spread are wearing relatively ‘normal’ clothing and they aren’t stereotyping the genre of rock, for example wearing leather, which happens a lot, however this is considered quite dated and old- fashioned now. They look like a normal rock band.

REPRESENTATION: GENDER

The gender of the majority of the people photographed and wrote about are male, as this is relatable to the main target audience. As well as this, it is most similar to reality which makes the magazine seem more professional and realistic. On the contents page there is a female featured which clearly isn’t the same gender as the main target audience. I featured this image because females will still want to read the magazine so an element they can relate to is beneficial- in effect creating a wider target audience. However this image also works in a way beneficial to the main target audience also, males will find the female attractive and enjoy seeing the female within the magazine. Evidence of this is within the Male Gaze theory by Laura Mulvey.

REPRESENTATION: ETHNICITY/ SOCIAL CLASS/ DISABILITY

Within the rock genre white males are the majority, as well as the predominant target audience. Therefore I decided to photograph white people as this is something the target audience is expecting and are used to.

The social class of the magazine is not obvious, however it would be assumed that it would most likely limit at around B as the colours are quite youthful (e.g. red and orange) as well as the people featured. This is assuming that younger people may still be in education or working in lower positions at first.

Disability is difficult to represent however the magazine isn’t specifically targeted at a non- disabled audience. Perhaps reading the magazine is a way a disabled person (e.g. a deaf or blind person) finds information on music, as the writing is descriptive.

SUB- CULTURES

The genre rock is stereotyped as being and looking, like a punk or a goth. There are clear stereotypes of what a rocker looks like: wearing leather, studs, black, eccentric hair and makeup, huge chunky boots.. However if you look at the majority of today’s rock artists or bands they are dressed however they want to- which most of the time is their own fashion; quite plain and ‘normal’. Therefore within my magazine I represented their unique and individual style.

ROCK- COLOURS

Instead, some of the ways I stereotyped the rock genre is by use of colour, font and language.

My house style consisted of 3 main colours; black, red and white (there are bursts of orange too- this is a convention of magazines as it used to catch the audiences attention). These colours are used throughout the genre as a whole: in magazines as well as by association. For example: red represents; excitement, anger, love and stop, black represents; rock music, death, goths and strength. These are associations with rock music through colour without the audience being prompted by an image.

ROCK - FONT

I used bold fonts within the magazine, not only because it makes the text more eye catching and is a code and convention, but also because it connotes and image of being strong and loud which rock music is, especially in comparison with other genres such as pop or hip hop.

ROCK – LANGUAGE

The type of language I used consisted of the lexicon surrounding rock and music generally. For instance on the contents page instead of using ‘contents’ as a title I used ‘in the mix’ which is just a more interesting phrase and play on words.

As well as this I used onomatopoeic words such as the masthead itself ‘raw’, it is a loud sound which could have the double meaning of ‘roar’, this represents rock music well as it is always loud. As well as this raw could be taken as ‘real’, as people tend to think it doesn’t sounds as auto-tuned or perfect.

I used punctuation such as exclamation marks in order to make the audience more involved and excited with the magazine. It also gives the idea that it is being shouted (relating to rock again). The use of question marks gives direct address to the audience and makes them feel more a part of the magazine.