Friday, 24 January 2014

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think my media product is a clear representations of female teenagers, this is shown through the use of colours, the models, fonts and general content of the magazine.

The main model of the front cover is something that immediately establishes teenage girls who are more feminine and into girly things, this come across through the use of clothing, the main model is wearing a floral dress which gives the impression she is very girly as floral patterns are associated with femininity, therefore represents this social group. In addition to this, I think as it is a female model, I think she represents a typical reader and connects with this social group as they can relate, also make up is clearly an element of the model which would also interest this social group as it's an associated hobby, interest and it's popular amongst them. I think also, due to the fact the model is representing a female celebrity, this also represents a female social group, because most gossip and celebrity orientated magazines are targeted at females as it is known for them to enjoy this type of content.


The colours throughout the magazine in my opinion are the most defining of social groups and specify it to femininity. Due to the dominance of shades of pink and purple, which are very stereotypical colours associated with teenage girls, this definitely represents the social group. Often when people think of girls, the first thing that comes to mind is pink, and as purple is such a close shade that compliments and ties in, it is really appropriate for the magazine, another example to support this, is when children are given birth to, pink is the colour given to the girls, whilst blue is given to the boys, so this is what clearly identifies this.

The font throughout the magazine are dominantly sans serif font, this eliminates the association with upper and middle class social groups as well as older generations, as without the fancy feet, it looks far simpler than if it were to appear regularly which would give an appearance of sophistication and class which my media product lacks as I wanted it to appear more fun and bold to represent the younger audiences. In relation to this, the intelligence of the readers is also represented to be not as intellectual due to the simplicity of the text and font. The language throughout the magazine support this, as there are recurring notions towards slang, jokes and abbreviations which fit the teenage audience, as in modern generations it's a popular form of speech and occurs within their everyday giving a clear representation of this social group.


The contents of the magazine also defines the magazines representation of social groups, with constant relation between pop music celebrities, the younger audience is immediately picked up on, but this is further defined with the ideas of fashion which is a common interest between females, as well as a boy craze towards celebrity male crushes, which is something that stereotypically teenage girls craze about due to their changing hormones, therefore from content like that, teenage girls are definitely picked up on. Other contents such as fashion and celebrity stories is also strongly relative to females, as these are often contents that are included in many magazines aimed at females like heat magazine for example, which always advertises content like this, therefore it is really representative of the female group.

Pop magazines are mostly associated with teenagers and females, therefore mine is really relevant to fit these conventions, however it does contrast slightly with heavier and more obnoxious views of these conventions which actually narrow the different social groups which could relate to the magazine. I didn't really break any stereotypical views or representations of social groups which all narrows the variety but defines the target audience. The dominance of stereotypical views on these social groups really support ideas associated with them, for example the colour of pink, which is used frequently throughout the magazine design supports this stereotype.




I think when all of these different elements that represent similar social groups work together and combine throughout the magazine, the media product definitely become a more defined representation as there is so much in common between the representation of social groups within the fonts, colours, models and contents, I would say the most reoccuring social groups are females and teenagers/young people, therefore in general the main representation is teenage girls.

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