question two
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
QUESTION TWO
How does your media product
represent particular social
groups?
Whilst producing my final product, I had to think of how
I was representing my target audience of teenagers,
split 70/0 between female to male. “Representation
refers to the construction in any medium of
aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects,
events, cultural identities and other abstract
concepts.” In my magazine, I mostly represented
people, however within my planning there are further
links to objects and events. I have represented them
through the use of images and props.
MISE-EN-SCENE
I have used props when shooting my two models to further represent my target
market. I have used a Union Jack whilst shooting my model [Tara Symonds].
This represents my target audience because it connotes the genre of music that
they would be interested in. The Union Jack has a lot of associations with my
genre of music, for example, the Union Jack dress which Geri Halliwell wore
with the Spice Girls. It is also linked to the 1977 Silver Jubilee, when the British
punk genre of music first came about, the foundations of British music today. I
also used a pair of Ray Ban wayfarer sunglasses to represent my target
audience because of the associations with the mysteriousness of wearing
sunglasses to hide your eyes.
MISE-EN-SCENE
I have shot my model [Tara] wearing an Oasis t-shirt, blue
heels, and a coloured pair of shorts. I feel that this represents
my target audience because it has connotations to Britpop,
which is the genre of MALICE, and the type of music that
teenagers would be interested in. I feel that this would attract
my female consumers, however I decided to shoot Ellie
wearing a large leather jacket and studded shorts, I did this to
attract male consumers within the genre of Britpop music.
MODEL POSITIONING
I have shot both of my models [Tara & Ellie] in dynamic positions, this was
to represent the young and fun nature of my target audience. I wanted to
represent my target audience as joyful, to achieve this I shot my model
[Ellie] smiling to the camera and engaging with the reader. My model’s
facial expression [Ellie] is positive, presenting my target audience as
positive people. I feel that I have represented my models in different ways,
Ellie seems to take her music more seriously whereas Tara is represented
as having more fun, this is from the way that her arms are up in the air, this
signifies that she is carefree. I used both of my models because they fit my
target age group, but are also very fitting to the fashion and style look of
my magazine.
CLASS
My magazine’s target market doesn’t have a particular socio-economic
group attached to it, I decided to make my magazine accessible to
anybody of the age group which ‘MALICE’ is targeted towards. I have
represented this decision by the range of clothing and props that I have
used whilst shooting my models. For example, I have used an inexpensive
Union Jack flag, but I have also used a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses, which
might appeal to 3rd class consumers, and 1st class consumers. I have also
represented my decision to not attach a particular class to my magazine
by pricing it at £2.99, this price makes it accessible to both low income
consumers and high income consumers.
MAGAZINE GENRE
The musical genre which I have centred my magazine around is
representing my target audience of teenagers because it would
attract them to my magazine. I had to think how I would
represent the age and gender of my target audience. The genre
‘Britpop’ is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in
Britain, it was most popular in the early 1990’s, influenced by
rock bands from the 1960’s and 1970’s. I decided to cover this
genre because I know that a lot of teenagers can relate and are
interested in this genre in particular.
ARTICLES
Everything which I have written is written in a way in which a teenager would be able to relate to, for example, I have written about iconic artists such as The Beatles and used quotes from Oasis songs. By looking through fashion and other music magazines which share my target audience, I was able to understand how articles were written and how
other magazines targeted teenagers.
COLOUR SCHEME
I decided to use a colour scheme of red, white and
navy blue, not only because of it’s associations with
my Britpop genre, but they are very bright colours.
Bright colours would represent my target audience
because my research shows that teenagers would be
more inclined to purchase magazines that include
bright colours as they are more interesting to the
eye.