Evaluation Draft

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 The type of social groups my magazine particularly represents are of course indie fans and people who enjoy attending festivals and going out with their mates. I feel as though I have done this successfully throughout my magazine as the type of model and images of her I have chosen to include are similar to the type of people who actually read my magazine therefore they may look up to her and in some way connect with her. The musician I have wanted to present in my magazine gives off a quirky and even cheeky appearance, similar to the type of characteristics my target audience portray. This is shown by the types of angry and fun facial expressions my model has in the images included in my magazine. The type of clothes my model is also wearing can come across as original and unique, especially by the types of different accessories she is wearing and she may also have the same fashion as my readers. Taking this into account, my magazine clearly promotes itself towards indie fans as they have their own individual look however they love keeping up the date with the latest styles and expressing these in their own way which I feel my model does. When deciding on who my model should be, I choose someone who wouldn’t mind going ahead with silly and quite unusual poses so she could look as much like an indie artist as possible as indie stars seem to have quite wacky and fun personalities. Therefore seeing a typical indie artist as part of the main feature in my magazine, my target audience will be more likely to purchase my product because they can see an artist who they most likely know they will enjoy reading about.

 Furthermore in some of my images, Vanessa uses strong bold poses as part of her body language to show she is confident and daring. In many of the photos I have chosen she is looking directly at the camera to draw the audience in as well as letting the public know she is not afraid to be herself. This again links to my target audience and the social groups I represent through my magazine as many of my readers will also be loud and have some form of self-confidence as they clearly enjoy showing off their unique style to others and don’t seem to care what other people think of them. This can also be expressed through the different props I used such as the hats my model wears. I feel these again give her a different look and make her unique compared to other artists. The make-up she is wearing is also quite bold such as the bright red lipstick and dark eye-shadow; these again give her similar qualities to my target audience as they also want to show off their looks, not only through their clothes but also through their hair and make-up also.

 Overall I think my model gives an interesting yet sometimes controversial look as she is sometimes giving off quite strange facial expressions (especially on my cover page) plus she never seems to smile in my chosen photos as this I feel would give off the wrong impression and make her look more like a pop artist than anything else. Although some may argue this can make her look less approachable, therefore steering people away from buying my magazine, I think it makes indie fans want to find out more about this striking and engaging character. Moreover, she continues to give off the same type of style as her fans and more specifically the indie music social groups.

 Not only does my model represent these particular social groups, the other type of content I have also included such as the sell line on my front cover ‘A-Z of Gig Listing’ do too. These further supports the idea of indie fans and festivals lovers buying my magazine as they will be instantly drawn to this on the cover page as they will enjoying reading about gigs so they can later maybe attend them with their other friends with the same music interests. I have also included a puff at the top of my cover page, allowing the readers to have an opportunity to win tickets to reading. As my target audience love going to festivals, their chance to win a trip to one of the biggest festivals in the UK would definitely appeal to them and further describes my social groups as typical festival goers. In my article I have also included my artist’s life while growing up as well as her own inspirations and role models. As other content besides the music is something my readers wanted to see from the research I did about my articles, I feel this was appropriate to include and therefore made the tone of my article sound less serious – giving off the same feel as my captivating images.