How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is aimed at people who like hip-hop/rap and indie rock. The magazine represents the social groups that like to go out to concerts and parties. The swears in the magazine show a rebellious side to the artists and the people reading the magazine. Most of the readers would be maybe 16-18/19, mixed genders and middle class. The magazine is more for the underdogs, the unpopular not sporty kids at school, the ones who get bullied, the kids who need rough music as escapism, and this magazine would help them find more music like that.

Since hip-hop features a higher proportion of black performers than white, I’ve mentioned most of my favourite African-American rappers in the contents page. One of the problems I’ve had with preproduction is that I had no access to any dark skin models to represent the African-American dominated industry.

Teenagers are usually represented in the media as rowdy, rude and rebellious. This magazine shows this, but shows that they have a good side to them. The rapper interviewed in the double page spread is my friend Knight Six. He’s about my age, and people would assume that since he’s a teenager and into rap that he is rebellious and scary. In reality, he states in his interview that he’s not like that at all outside of his music.

The style and colour scheme of my magazine show that my audience is sophisticated, and don’t need loads of pictures and bright colours like Kerrang to influence them into buying the magazine.