Evaluation 2 draft

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Throughout the process of making my magazine I tried to create something that would appeal to the magazines target audience in order to make the magazine successful. I tried to create something that would appeal to myself because I know that it would also appeal to a larger, like-minded audience while also making the creative process easier for myself. While I already had an idea of who my target audience was and how I was going to attract and draw them in I used the UK tribes website to help create a more accurate picture of my target audience, Increasing the chances of my magazine successfully catching the attention of my target audience. Through the use of the UK tribes websites I found the social groups I was trying to appeal to were the 'scenesters' and the 'hardcore'. Both of these groups were defined as trying to set themselves apart from mainstream groups by starting their own trends and styles. Music is extremely important to these social groups and plays a very large part of their lives, including defining the kinds of clothing they were. This meant that the magazine had to portray a number of bands that would appeal greatly to these social groups otherwise the magazine would never hold the attention of it's target audience and it's target social groups.

The bands featured in the magazine would also have to be well known bands in the indie/midwest emo genre without being too mainstream. Doing this would appeal to my target audience in two ways; it would advertise and feature bands that would appeal to the target audience, increasing the chances of the magazine being purchased by the target social groups which would help the magazine with gaining popularity and profitability. The second would be that the bands are still considered small and indie in comparison to mainstream artists. This would appeal to the target audience and social groups the magazine is aimed towards because the bands are still considered indie and therefor still considered cool and appealing by the target social groups. My featured band was named 'Soviet era Cosmonaut'. I did this because I decided the name was interesting and unique sounding and would work as a name for a band within the indie genre. It also allowed me to add a Soviet colour scheme and style throughout the issue magazine, adding a sense of novelty and making the issue thematic while also implying that other issues of Maverick are designed around their featured artist while still retaining it's own in house style. This would appeal to my target audience and target social groups because it makes each issue unique, appealing to the social groups core values and interests.

Fin Quinlan, the model I used on the front cover, would be considered to be part of the 'scenesters'. This meant it was easy to dress him in a way that appeals to the target demographic because he follows the same fashion trends as the target social groups. His smart white shirt combined with his charity shop coat creates a look that the target social groups would also wear and find fashionable. The look was based off the types of clothing members of bands such as Car seat headrest would wear. We did this because the fashion and clothing that members from these types of small indie bands wear heavily influences the fashion trends of the social groups the magazine is targeting. This means this fashion style would catch the eye of people from the target demographic and draw their interest. The featured article is about the featured band going on a journey back to creating music and struggling to cope with attention from their band. This would attract the target social groups because they would be interested in a dramatic story and may relate to the themes included in the article. My magazine overall represents the indie social groups 'scenesters' and 'hardcore' as laid back and unique, always willing to try something different. They are highly influenced by the music they listen to and are very passionate about it.
My magazine mainly aimed at the male demographic but can easily be expanded to the female demographic by the inclusion of female models which would also include music and fashion that would appeal to women in the target social groups.