DRAFT evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The first and obvious way that my magazine represents one particular social group is through the model. The person that I used to represent my fictional artist represents several social groups such as male, young and white British. The clothes that he wears also allow several social groups to associate with him such as ‘indie’ or ‘scenester’ due to his denim jacket and hairstyle.

Beyond the physical image of the ‘artist’ the perceived political and philosophical image that I created through his language in the article that allows readers from certain social groups to identify further not only with him, but the media product and production company as well. One example of language that is found in most generic ‘indie’ or ‘scenester’ media products is where he denounces using labels for both music and people in general “I think the whole world would benefit greatly if we stopped trying to label everything.” Whereas the media is constantly playing catch up with what’s ‘P.C’ some groups have begun trying to rid the world of labels all together, claiming that all they achieve is to hinder progression. So the reason that I wrote the article in this style is to try and match the opinions of these groups, and draw them into this media product through the association of the artist and the magazine. So even though the magazine is not directly representing their views, it is indirectly voicing their opinions through the featured artist.

Based on the UKtribes research that I carried out prior to taking photos etc, the group that I wished to represent the most was a ‘tribe’ named ‘scenesters’ which is made up of young people striving to find “what’s next before it has a chance to become what’s ‘now.’” To represent this group is inherently difficult due to their constantly fluctuating interests in line with what has made it to the mainstream, and what is being created every day. So to try and attract this group to my media product, I had to be careful not to include elements that might deter them from purchasing it. This is one of the reasons why I chose to take a minimalist approach so that I could avoid accidentally using anything that would contradict their evolving interests.