Evaluation - Question 2



How does the Media Product represent a particular social group?

 

When I created my target audience profile I decided that my music magazine 'Pitch' would be targeted towards teenagers who are predominantly males, seen as when I carried out my primary research, through the method of a questionnaire, males were more keen to take part in my research. This made me come to a conclusion that males are more interested in music magazines than females, my questionnaire results show that 60% of males are interested in music magazines whereas only 40% of females are. But regardless of whether they're males or females, I decided to target my music magazine 'Pitch' towards teenage students who are into the genre of rock because of this I decided to base the pages of Pitch on the real music magazine Kerrang! because it shares the same target audience as mine. I also decided to base my pages on Kerrang! because my results from my questionnaire state that 50% of the public would read the music magazine Kerrang! which evidently shows that my target audience prefer the style of this specific rock magazine in comparison to other existing music magazines. The main aim of my music magazine was to appeal to a certain social group (teenagers and mostly males). I believe that my completed product has achieved this in a variety of ways.

 

The front cover of Pitch was designed specifically to appeal to my target audience, I tried to do this effectively in a similar way that Kerrang! does. Kerrang's front cover is seen as informal and is sometimes described as having a 'cluttered layout' it is in contrast to Q's clean cut structure. Kerrang! is quite focused but still has a laid back teenage feel about the music magazine, the artists and the bands featured in the magazine are usually from the genre of rock or punk rock. This is the same direction that I wanted my music magazine 'Pitch' to aim for, but I decided to stick to the complete genre of rock instead of aiming for the punk aspect of this genre. I also decided not to have a dark coloured front cover like some Kerrang! issues such as the one placed below, instead I just decided to keep to the same colour scheme.

I modelled Pitch's front cover on this issue of Kerrang! because I felt that it was one specific issue of kerrang! that wasn't over-detailed. I decided to create the layout of my front cover based on this existing kerrang! magazine. I liked the layout of this kerrang! issue in comparison to other music magazines because I felt that it looked professional, keeping to the forms and conventions of a real media product but also had an edgy relaxed feel to the music magazine for example I felt that the free poster special made the magazine look more attractive as it tries to entice my target audience in by the use of subsidiary images of bands included in the magazine instead of cramming the page with sell lines, which some readers may feel is overwhelming and off putting as it doesn't straight forwardly state who's in the magazine. I also included the free poster special as this feature would definitely appeal to some people who are heavily influenced by music, and are a fan of rock music; which leads to the stereotype of rock fans having posters all over their bedroom walls. I chose this issue as it conveyed a professional look, it has a specific layout showing that it follows a structured plan and lastly it keeps to the specific genre of rock, which my target audience are interested in. Over all I believe that this style of magazine would attract my target audience as it appears to be inviting and eye-catching. The pose of the band makes them look dominant and intimidating, showing that they mean business. I wanted my image to achieve the same effect as this by using an image of the boys that makes them look rebellious, ambitious and mysterious but also with a mellow non-aggressive feel to there presence.

 

I eventually chose this image to be displayed as the main image for Pitch's front cover. I decided to use this image of the band because I believe that it represents their age and their social group effectively through their gaze, body language and their costumes which also still relates to the genre of the magazine. The three band members in the photograph are males within my target audience age range. As my questionnaire results show, my target audience favour a male group. I have also tried to use similar clothing to other bands modelled on the front cover of music magazines which share the same genre as mine (e.g kerrang, NME), I did this so that the band 'Rage City' represent the same fashion style that fits with the audiences preferences. This image helps to relate the band 'Rage City' to the audience and their social group, showing that the magazine understands them, which allows the audience to trust the magazine, therefore sale figures will increase.

 

 

In the article the best representational aspects can be seen from the main image on the double page spread, but also from the textual content. For example, the image portrays ambition and dominance. I chose this image of the band 'Rage City' because I liked the fact that the three band members all stared straight at the camera having the 'gaze' that all rock bands have in the photos included in conventional music magazines. I also liked the edgy urban feel of the background making the band members look dominant which fits in with the genre of rock. Also I chose this image as the band members have strong eye contact with the target audience through their gaze, which allows the audience to feel connected to the band and their story line. This allows the particular social group that are being presented (the target audience) to feel like they understand the band 'Rage City' deeply.

For my written article, I decided to keep to the layout of other conventional music magazine articles. Therefore I made sure that I included details such as credits; stating the name of the journalist and of the photographer, pull quotes, drop caps, an image of the band on one whole page of the double page spread, the colour scheme of the magazine as a whole, conventional language such as "exclusively" or "subscribe", page numbers and lastly web site details so that my music magazine 'Pitch' is able to attract its target audience, who are technophile. Also I included a web address to portray that this brand has multi-media platforms. All these specific details allow the music magazine 'Pitch' to be presented as professional seen as it follows the forms and conventions of a real media product and it also allows my music magazine to appeal to its target social group.

In the contents page the best representational aspects can be seen through its images again. The band members clothing represent the same fashion style that fits with the audiences preferences. I have also kept the same band members for the cover page, contents page and the article, to portray how the pages inside the music magazine 'Pitch' link together. I also decided to use the same band members in the images shown throughout the magazine so that it helps my targeted social group to make a connection between these  pieces of content and it also allows them to develop a connection with the band. I decided to include female artists and female band members in my subsidiary images on my contents page so that my music magazine 'Pitch' also appeals to females. I believe that using a mix of genders, makes my music magazine appealing to both males and females.

Similarly to my article, my contents page has specific details that many existing music magazines have, such as having conventional headings and page numbers allowing my target audience to have knowledge of where to find certain artists/bands/articles.