1. Question 2:
{ How does your media
product represent particular
social groups?
2.
As my target audience for my preliminary and main task is
teenagers, I tried to appeal to them a lot through out this entire
project.
In the early production stages, I did research on existing magazines
and saw how they appealed to their target audience using certain
colours, language, text, presentation and even the way the models
looked.
I then made a questionnaire for the social group I am targeting to
find out their opinions on aspects in student and music magazines
so I have a better idea of what teenagers look forward to in
magazines. Then I did an interview and got more varied views and
then knew what I should include in the magazine I am going to
make.
In the production stage, I took the photos of the models and then
edited them in Adobe Photoshop to look like they were in a
magazine.
For the preliminary task (student magazine), the models were
teenagers dressed in casual clothes that students would normally
wear. This appeals to teenagers as a social group because they
would identify themselves within these models.
3.
To support this point, I am using the Uses Of Gratifications Theory stating
that certain people use particular media texts for certain reasons. One of
the Uses Of Gratifications Theory is: Integration And Social Interaction.
This is when people identify themselves with others to get a sense of
belonging and relate to them. The models were also happily holding
folders and schoolbooks to make students more enthusiastic about going
to school and learning.
For the main task (music magazine), the social group of teenagers would
get attracted to the front cover because the model is a teenager. He is
wearing casual clothes teenagers would wear and his hairstyle is
fashionable for that age group. Members of the target audience who
would see this magazine front cover would perhaps think that this model
could be one of their friends because he looks like a typical teenager and
other people that age will associate themselves with him. The colour
scheme I used is red, blue, black and white. These are basic colours that
create quite a fun vibe when put together which is something many
teenagers seek and these colours would also appeal to both genders,
which gives the magazine a larger target audience. I made sure that
certain words on the front cover were highlighted to attract this particular
audience; like “Teenage” and things that are “Free”. This makes the front
cover more likely to tempt teenagers because they would want to see
something that would relate to them and would also want something free,
as students/teenagers stereotypically don’t have a lot of money or
wouldn’t be willing to pay for something.
4.
On the contents page, I put down a list of the contents the magazine
will contain where I added information about films that teenagers
would find interesting like The Hunger Games soundtrack and the
opportunity to win a copy of The Making Of The Great Gatsby
Soundtrack. These are popular films amongst that age range. I also
included 100 Films With Great Music and 50 Songs You Must Listen
To. This may excite them, as not only teenagers but also a lot of other
age groups would want music suggestions. I added the Main Feature
of the magazine to show teenagers that this issue is mainly about this
teenage music composer. The target audience would relate this
character and they may also be inspired by him because he is do
successful at a young age.
On the double page spread, I put large pull quotes to catch the
readers’ attention and what is written in the article may appeal to
that social group, I also added the character’s (Glen Griffen’s) twitter
name and blog URL. Teenagers use social networking sites a lot so
they are most likely to go on these websites.