Evaluation2 :How does your media product represent particular social groups?



My magazine represents a particular social group through the use of images, colours and styles.
The overall style of the magazine is very laidback rather than being very formal and strict like NME or Rolling Stones magazines. The reason for this is because I have  found that an age group around 17-25 are more likely to go for a magazine that has a relaxed, fun sort of feel rather than a formal, strict layout. For example the overall layout I have used for the contents page and double page spread, where everything isn't exactly even or totally balanced out. Also the artists that I have mentioned or pictures I have used are around this age group too, so it will appeal better to my target audience.
The colours I have used in the magazine also relate to this target audience group better than for example using lots of different bright colours that would appeal better to children or younger people. This is particular to the music magazine 'Smash Hits' which appeals to younger teens and older children,  where it uses lots of different colours, images and text so that the magazine is busy because it is more likely for this age group to become distracted and loose interest. However for my magazine I wanted to give it a calm feel without it becoming boring as well as fun.
I used purple as the main colour for the magazine so that it would have an iconic colour as I found that there wasn't any other music magazine that uses this colour but also appeals to the same target audience. I didn't want my magazine to appeal to a younger audience as the language and topics are more adult than childish, so I chose to stick with a few different colours rather than use a variety.
In the end I ended up settling with purple, black and white so that I could keep a certain theme/feel throughout the magazine but these different colours also allow me to mix the pages up and give each page its own identity. This way I believe that it will appeal to my target audience of 17-25 as they are less likely to get bored of the magazine if every page is slightly different, however being important that I keep the colour palette the same to create the magazines overall identity.
In order represent a particular media group I made sure that all text in the magazine was straight to  the point and not full of detail. By looking through magazines that appeal to a similar age group, I found that it is essential that I don't bore the reader with a lot of writing and that the reader just has the important information only, to avoid them becoming distracted.
I also made sure that this magazine would represent my target audience by the use of clothing and style of the artists images. I wanted to make sure that what these people wore are typical of that people of this age would wear or that it isn't too old or young.











On the left is a photo from a music magazine called 'NME' and on the right is a photo I used for my music magazine. I have chosen these two images as I believe they have similarities as well as differences. I think they're similar as they both use a close up shot making direct eye contact with the reader as this is more attractive. Both faces are well lit as they are bright and clear which gives the artist an identity. The position of the person on the front of 'NME' is slightly tilted like the photo I used which brings movement to the image.

However, the hair and makeup are different because I have went for a girly pop make up look using diamond gems, whereas 'NME' went for a simple bear faced make up look in which they didn't need to use a unique way of presenting her because she is a well know artist. The hair of the artist on 'NME' magazine is also used to draw people in as it has been edited to stand out from the rest of the front cover.




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