Evaluation: Representation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For my media product I chose to represent an ‘indie’ and ‘alternative’ social group of an age range from 16-25. My magazine is aimed at both males and females as the music genre can be listened to by either, plus the contents of my magazine targets and interested both males and female. I used colours like, dark blue, black, grey and white to fit both males and female’s interests, therefore I can make sure it’s not too feminine. By having a male and female model in my magazine tells the audience that my media product is addressed to both genders. My media magazine represents these colours such as black, grey, white and subtle colours to show what type of colours they’d wear in their everyday clothing choices. My models in my magazine both wear black, one of which (Connor) wears a skate branded top ‘Polar’ which also represents part of my social group who are interested in skating which is part of the ‘indie’ theme I try to get across throughout my magazine. 

 The imagery plays a huge part in representing the social group which I am addressing. The expressions on the models faces for instance are soft but serious to give a ‘moody’ but sleek look. I got my inspiration from black and white images online of other models giving the same kind of expression. 

Online images of magazine shoots 

My images 

For my main cover image, I was very much inspired by images from a magazine called ‘I-D’. The magazine I-D has a very similar target audience that I would have which is why I wanted to look at their images and try represent them. The main cover image is similar to the I-D photo because of the dark blue colour in the background and the facial expression. The only part which is different is the make-up art on the model face, I decided not to do this and to keep it quite plain and minimal. 

              My Front Cover                                                                      I-D Model

My media product has been heavily influenced by indie alternative music, films and fashion. The type of music I included in my magazine are less mainstream which makes the music and magazine more unique and personal to the audience. I left out mainstream music because I feel it’s very irrelevant to my social group who would be reading my media product. The social group I am representing are very much interested in iconic films and old music such as ‘The Smiths’. The film aspect is very important because it shows the maturity of my target audience through the interest of films and old music like The Smiths. The fact my target audience enjoy iconic films such as Pulp Fiction, The Basket Ball Diary’s, Psycho, Palo Alto and The Shinning give an idea that they’re mature enough to appreciate the meaning behind them and the fact they love the uniqueness. This links well with the whole idea of my social group being interested in unique things such as unknown bands, films and original fashion; this practically sums up the ‘indie’ culture. The films I mentioned all have a vintage touch to them and the clothing shown in the films represent the choices of clothing that my target audience would wear. For example, in Palo Alto a lot of denim and vintage clothing is worn with minimal color. 

These images above represent my social group and show that they’re laid back and almost look as if they’ve put no effort into their outfits yet still look fashionable. The skateboarding image represents those who skate and read magazines like mine, linking back to my model Connor who wore the skate branded top.  The image of the boy sitting on a bench gives an impression of a ‘rough’ look with the rips in his denim jacket along with the long messy hair. All these add up and show the ‘indie’ style I am trying to get across throughout my whole media product.