media evaluation question 2

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

2. Choosing my target audience and
attracting social groups
When I began planning my magazine, I knew what style I wanted to create. After choosing the genre that I wanted
to focus on, I then had to begin researching into it. I found that the majority of their demographic attracted the
likes of youths from the age of 15+ up until adults age 30. I based my own target audience from this as it seemed
logical as those that listen t the music are more likely to purchase an RnB magazine.
My next step was to organise what models I would be using in my magazine so that I could demonstrate to my
demographic that I had given thought into the age of my models so that they could represent the younger age of
my target audience as I am of the similar age which means I can represent to them myself.
The social groups that RnB convey are those that are in the demographics of D and E. These groups involve people
that are unemployed, students and unskilled workers. People who are within these groups tend to listen the RnB
genre as many artists sing/rap about problems that people can relate to. For example Drake may rap about how
hard is upbringing was and a person within these demographics are likely to relate to him. I took on board these
demographics and adapted this to my own magazine.

3. Adapting my magazine to the
demographic
After deciding on the demographic that I wanted to focus my magazine om, I knew that I needed to
adapt certain areas of my magazine so that it attracts the correct social group. This meant ensuring
that my models represented the demographics by choosing the costume wisely and the way that they
perceived themselves. And then smaller details that finalise every magazine such as the price, I wanted
to make sure that it was suitable for the demographic. For instance I included a pricing question within
my survey and the results were around £1.99
By adapting certain aspects of my magazine, I knew that it would make the difference to how it
attracts the demographic. If I was to include expensive cars and lots of “bling” on the front cover, then
even though it would show mass success from the music artist, I wanted to show how an ordinary
“urban” artist could be a representative of those in the demographic by keeping the appearance basic
and relatable.

4. Representation of my models
Even though I had changed the convention of using more female models within the RnB genre, I still
wanted to attract the demographic by creating a style that was easily relatable. I did this by researching
into typical RnB clothing. What I found was that a lot of artists tend to wear simple clothing but it is
“dressed” up by the props that come with it. This may be a hat or a chain around their neck which
ultimately shows of their wealth. I wanted to use props in my magazine as I felt as though it created
more style, however I swapped out the jewellery for headphones, as instead of the model showing off
wealth, it demonstrated dedication to the music that they were trying to sell.
The clothing that they wore was kept quite basic as they wore ripped jeans and a hoodie.
Stereotypically, people who are within the demographics are D and E tend to be on low income and so
basic clothing such as tracksuits and hoodies are usually seen. I used this idea for my own model as on
the front cover my model can be seen to be wearing a hoodie. This shows a clear representation of the
demographic that I am trying to relate to.

5.  Male stereotypes: They are usually seen to be topless as it attracts the attention of
the female demographic and they usually have tattoos with chains around their neck
Women: Just like men, women are seen to have minimal clothing, this is because
men are seen to be the objects of desire. Their makeup is usually dark to make the
eyes appear more alluring and to show the power that the women have
Stereotypes

6. Audience Positioning
Through using Stuart Halls theory of audience positioning and encoding/decoding, I
am able to determine where about’ my target audience lies.
 My magazine is an example of dominant reading as the reader fully accepts the
preferred reading (the audience will read the text the way the writer intended them
to) so the code seems natural.

7. What was I trying to create
 The image and story that I wanted to try and create in my magazine was that I wanted a
young, female breakthrough RnB artist.
I didn’t want to imitate a music artist that already existed. Instead I just took inspiration
from multiple artists such as Drake, Beyoncé, Iggy Azalea. All these artists feature within
the same RnB genre however, all are different in appearance and sound and so I wanted
to combine elements of each and put them into one artist.
The story that I was trying to put out to my target audience was that the featured music
artist had come from a difficult background, not family wise but social class wise. I
thought this is important because I didn’t want to have a negative story on family life, I
wanted to perceive something a little different.