Evaluation Activity 2

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

My model for the images in my magazine is wearing a black-coloured/purple-coloured t-shirt with jeans and white-rimmed shades. These colours blend in well with my colour scheme of black, purple, gold, and white. Also, black and purple are both bold colours and have connotations of power and elegance. Hence, these colours portray connotations of richness too. The white-rimmed shades give my model a refined look as well. In addition, my model is wearing a silver-plated thick chain and a watch which gives the 'cool' touch to his outfit. Jewellery is a major feature of an artist in the R&B/hip-hop industry, as jewellery has connotations of prosperity. This casual, yet trendy, look relates well to the genre of my magazine but I did not overdo the style to give a typical representation of an artist in the R&B/hip-hop genre. I wanted to keep my model's look simple but classy and mature at the same time in order to make my magazine style original.

The social group of youth are represented through my model’s style of dress, as youth are generally attracted to items that connote wealth.    

I decided to have a male model as I think that they represent the genre of my magazine well, attracting female audiences as well as male audiences. The model’s facial expression portrays his confidence and determination, which people look for in a music artist.

For the reasons above, the type of person that would be attracted to buy my magazine is clearly someone who is interested in the R&B/hip-hop genre (my magazine is aimed at a niche audience). People who are interested in this kind of music are usually from urban backgrounds. The articles included on the contents page portray the kind of person who would buy my magazine, as they are mostly based on certain artists in the R&B/hip-hop music industry. Also, the articles would interest readers as a form of escapism by reading about other people’s success and lifestyle that’s different to their own life.


Similarities and Differences Between Artists

 

Although my cover artist and Jay Sean are both of different ages, they are ethnically alike and share similar tastes in their style of clothing as they are well-dressed. Jay Sean and my cover artist are both wearing shades and jewellery which add to their trendy, ‘cool’ look. However, Jay Sean’s style of dress is more sophisticated (which could be due to the age difference) than my cover artist’s. This is evident through the fact that Jay Sean is wearing a leather jacket, which usually connotes manliness. Whereas, my cover artist is just wearing a simple t-shirt, which is still of a high quality brand, but highlights the social group that my media product represents as it’s aimed at youth from the age of 16 to 28. Nevertheless, both are portrayed as confident artists through their determined body language and facial expressions.