Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Above there are four magazine covers including my own. None if these magazine covers look exactly the same. I wanted my magazine to be original and not copy it from other companies. However, there are some similarities between these four front covers.

One similarity is that all of the models on the covers are women. This is because women are presented very differently than men are. The faces of the models seem to be very relaxed as 3/4 of the magazines, including my own, have models with their lips slightly parted giving the whole face a relaxed look. Also, all of the models are looking into the camera giving a sexy, mysterious confident look and so I wanted my model to do the same as this is how women are presented in the media industry as teens look up to these women as role models and this is what I planned to do for my magazine. These types of music magazines are not for one particular social group but usually aim to target an audience of teenagers between the ages of 14-21 years old who enjoy and follow the music charts and new entries. Therefore, choosing the right pose and position of the model is extremely important as the model needs to look confident and seem like a role model to capture the audience intended.

In terms of costume, this is another very important decision that needs to be made when creating a magazine cover as it has to be appropriate to capture the audience intended. As my magazine is a charts magazine, I found it very difficult to decide how I wanted to portray my model. I researched teens around the ages of 14-21 which is my target audience and looked at the way they dressed. Looking at society today, I realised that the fashion for teens seems to be quite ‘indie’ and urban and therefore that is how I decided to dress my model. On my magazine cover it is quite difficult to tell what outfit she is wearing and so I had to present her look using makeup, hair and accessories. I did this by giving her dark makeup, including black lips and a shadowing effect on the eyelids which also gives off a sexy mysterious look. As my model has very long hair, I decided to loosely curl the ends of it and add a black bowler hat to finish the urban look.

In terms of the lighting, all four magazines above use artificial lighting to boost the contrast which gives a dominant look and clear cuts the quality by using a well-equipped camera to give it a professional look. Using this type of lighting makes the model on the cover look flawless as well as them looking dominant and confident.

The reason why I decided to make the target audience of my magazine between the ages 

of 14-21 is because this is the age group that is mostly interested in chart music and new entries, therefore, they are more likely to buy this magazine. In addition, people over the age of 21 may not like this type of music magazine and people aged younger than 14 are less likely to read magazines overall. Lastly, this magazine is mainly focused towards women; however, men may find this magazine appealing.