HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS

EvaluationBy Brigit Gunton

How is social class represented in my magazine?

I haven’t really tackled any social groups, I have tried to leave it open for any social class to read by not creating a higher or lower class image. Although I would say as a genre ‘electronic dance music’ is more popular within middle class people because the audience tends to have a high disposable income to spend on going out, new gadgets and new music.

Headlines I have used such as ‘DnB vs. Dubstep’ leave it open to anyone to as it does not concern money, although other headlines such as ‘Global Gathering release killer headliner’ and ‘DJ Fresh announces new tour’, are both open for anyone to read but do require the reader to have money if they wanted to attend the events that are advertised.

The clothing that the characters I photographed are wearing aren’t expensive ‘logo’ brands which keeps it more equal for the genres although some of the equipment, such as the decks are showing off expensive items.

Class...job role

Although class in terms of job title and not by summing up from the image that is given, the main character is obviously very career driven.

He is focused on music, and achieving success. (see below)

Many people would begin to class the character as high class when they are playing bigger venues (such as O2 arenas).

Although being a teenager your class would most likely be determined on your parents job role and income.

The class of my audience is around 80% middle class and 10% lower and 10% higher, so it doesn't completely rule out of classes.

How my ‘characters’ are represented? What could this representation say about my audience?

My ‘characters’ are all male, which would show that the audience for this magazine and genre is more male dominated.

Although it is also attracting both genders because the character is aspiration for the males, who want to be successful DJ’s and a man for the women to look at.

The reason all my characters are male is not that I believe the electronic music industry is all male, the audience does also have a lot of women in it, it is because all of the DJ’s are male and the DJ I have featured (one of my friends – Medik) is a male DJ.

The characters image is quite scruffy, not much effort has gone into what they are wearing (just a t-shirt and hoody) and you can tell from the image they aren’t too bothered about what people think of their appearance. This suggests the audience is quite laid back and you can also tell the genre doesn’t really have a certain fashion style, unlike rock music where there is a lot of emphasis on the clothing, the genre of dance music doesn’t have a specific dress sense.

How males and females are represented in my magazine…

The majority of the magazine is targeted at men, and all of the DJ’s in the photographs are male.

I have done this because most of the readers of my magazine will be male and the real DJ’s in the industry are male. Therefore I have tried to keep it realistic.

The men are presented as a stereotypical ‘youth’, just wearing a hoody and t-shirt and smoking.

Females are not included in the magazine, therefore they aren’t presented in any way. Although some people may argue that because there are no females in the magazine it is sexist. So maybe if I was to change something I would try and include girls in the photos as well.

Ethnic groups…

I haven’t included any other ethnic groups other than White British. This is not because I haven’t wanted to or my genre doesn’t have many other ethnic groups in it.

It is solely down to the fact that York is predominantly white and I haven’t got many close friends who are of other ethnic backgrounds.

My chosen genre (electronic dance music) is very open to every ethnic group and some of the best DJ’s are African or Caribbean etc.

Therefore ethnic groups aren’t portrayed in any sort of way, maybe next time I would make the effort to include photographs of different ethnic groups but for convenience I have kept it out.

The ethnic group I have included (white – British) is portrayed in a ‘youthful’ and ‘careless’ sort of way, the character on the front is just in plain, slightly scruffy clothes and is smoking.

Teenagers or adults, how have I represented them…

My magazine targets 16-19 year olds therefore I chose to only include teenagers and adults aren’t represented in anyway.

I have portrayed teenagers in a typical ‘youth’ sort of way, through the smoking and the clothing such a hoody.

Although there are some elements that challenge this, such as the fact the main character is a young successful DJ and is obviously driven by his career and music. Which would suggest to the audience that teenagers have ambitions and strive for things.

Sexuality, physical ability, regional identity I haven’t really tackled any of these groups in any sort of

obvious way, although, looking deeper there are certain things you could pick up on in relation to this issue.

Sexuality: The magazine only features males, suggests there isn’t any women in this music? The photos of the men are always shot from a slightly lower angle, this may suggest to the reader that men are superior.

Physical ability: There is also nothing featured on people with disabilities, although you could not just assume this, the main character could suffer from something such as autism or a disability that is not immediately obvious.

Regional identity: My magazine is obviously aimed at people from England or Britain. It doesn’t deny people from other people the chance to read it, but it just features many things in England. Such as an English artist and article on Global Gathering which is in Stratford Upon Avon.

Above is a slide summing up my audience that I created for another slide, it tackles the general information such as age and gender.

Although there are some things that I haven’t included, such as ethnicity. I would say that the ethnicity of my reader is very varied, it is available to all ethnicity. Even though my magazine only features white British people, it certainly isn’t racist or ruling out anybody from reading it.