How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

2. My demographic • My magazine is aimed at people ages 16-26. • The magazine focuses on the indie electronic music genre, featuring some popular bands, but mainly smaller new musicians and creators from the internet, specificallyYouTube andSoundcloud. • Readers will be the type of people who are interested in independent music, gigs, and festivals, and also often use the internet to stay up to date and find new music, watcging videos on youtube, searching through spotify and soundcloudect. Sub-cultural, style orientated and with interests in films, art and graphic design, they care about both the content and the way magazines look , favouring more aesthetically pleasing design over bright colours and shouty quotes, and prefer to read about less well known musicians. They appreciate more detailed content as opposed to gossip., and prefer a heavier read.

3. Influences from existing magazines Electronic Musician Magazine This magazine focuses on electronic musicians but also features artists from a wide variety of genres from the ‘indie’ umbrella. The type of magazine my demographic is likely to read. The image has a filter over it to give it a slightly vintage look, I found that this is a common theme throughout similar magazines . I incorporated this into my magazine, as well as the way the text colours are matched to the image. There is a very subtle circle shape in the centre with text running through it. I liked this and used a similar idea in my double page spread, to give my magazine a similar style so that it fits the genre.

4. The Wire This magazine focuses on more obscure musicians, and whilst it does not specify its genre it features mostly independent musicians, nd so can be classified as indie. The text Is sans serif and minimal and again the colours of the image have been adjusted. The background is a gradient from green to a beige colour, and the masthead uses a simple sans serif font.and is placed slightly behind the image.Thisis also a common theme among independent music magazines, as unlike magazines catering to more mainstream audiences the overall style and design is very important, and often less cluttered. I designed my masthead to emulate this style, and I also used a gradient background, to replicate the overall look of real magazines of the same genre as mine.

5. My Cover I took into account the common traits of magazines in a similar genre to my own and used them to build my image, whilst still varying it and adding my own ideas. The image on the front cover is of the singers head and shoulders, with a simple uncluttered background, representing the singer as they are, without settings or props, the opposite of a mainstream pop magazine, so that my magazine is easily distinguished from those types of magazines. I wanted Claire to look like a serious musician, as my magazines focus is on music and not gossip, so there is no overly cluttered staged background, or excessive makeup, and no editing her face, as the idea is to show musicians as real people. The minimal font is behind the image to give it a professional feel, as indie magazines focus on serious musicians, I tried to make Claire look serious.and the colours in the image make the cover and the singer look somewhat artistic, representing my demographic in the same way. The magazine is intended to be a heavier read than gossip mags, so the presentation is neat and eye-catching without being over the top.

6. I used some of these techniques in the creation of my double page spread too, in particular choosing a highlight colour and using shapes to make the page more interesting. I used a simple, uncluttered photo so that the focus is on the musician as a person, and minimal font, simple shape and a wood texture to suit the style of the genre, the bright red suits the electronic genre whilst the fonts and the wood texture give it a more indie look, as my magazine is a combination of the two. This also helps make the article look genuine, as there are not bright colours and exclamation marks everywhere, and the text is wordier with music focused questions, which portrays musicians as intelligent and genuine. Claire is dressed in simple clothes, with minimal makeup, not conforming to the stereotypical staged photographs and photoshopped, made up models often found in magazines. I only edited the colour slightly but left Claire as she was in the original photographs.

7. The content of the interview is written to be a heavier read than gossip mags, and does not patronize the reader with simple text.This represents the musician (Claire) as being intelligent, and not shallow.