Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

A key social group that is represented in my media product is the youth. My media product is aimed at a target audience ages 11-16 so this pre-teen group plays a big role in my product as everything has been carefully designed to appeal to the needs and desires of this particular age group. The mode of address featuring on the front cover, contents page and double page spread has been carefully engineered to appeal to the language that is commonly used amongst pre-teens and teenagers today. For example, the name of the magazine itself links to the youthful mode of address that aims to reach the young target audience. The name Poppin’ both links to the genre of music, and to the fact that the youth of today often miss out the letter ‘g’ in words that end in the letters ‘ing’. The mode of address is very youth orientated as it uses abbreviations such as ‘fav’, instead of ‘favourite’ and ‘goss’, instead of ‘gossip’. Youth culture is also represented in my media product in the feature ‘Celeb Selfies’ on the contents page. The ‘selfie’ craze has been extremely popular amongst young people today; therefore the ‘selfie’ feature seemed like a good opportunity to appeal to the young target audience. The overall representation of youth is positive in my practical work. It is suggested in my magazine through the colour and style that the youth of today are bright and happy. Vibrant colours and fun shapes help to portray youth in a positive light. Even through using san serif fonts bubble fonts provides a positive representation of youth. If I had used serif fonts in my magazine, it would have given an old-fashioned and unoriginal look to the magazine. The use of sans serif bubble fonts suggest a unique element to youth in that the modern fonts imply the youth are moving with the times and evolving into a new generation.

The mode of address on the front cover reflects the age of the target audience. The name of the magazine is ‘Poppin’’, instead of using ‘Popping’. This references the slang words that the youth of today commonly use. ‘Fav’ is an abbreviation used for the word ‘favourite’. This youthful mode of address would appeal to target audience of the magazine who are aged 11-16.

The youthful mode of address is continued throughout the contents page of the magazine. Again, the word ‘fav’ features, rather than ‘favourite’. ‘Celebrity’ is also abbreviated to ‘celeb’ on the contents page. Using abbreviations is a big part of maintaining a youthful mode of address. It is successful in that the audience will read the words and automatically understand what they mean, but the informal and casual element of using abbreviations means that the audience will feel comfortable reading the magazine and would begin to see the magazine as a friend to confide in.

By maintaining the same mode of address that is on the front cover and contents page on the double page spread, it creates a sense of familiarity which helps achieve a strong brand identity so appeals to the audience.

Another key social group that is represented throughout my media product is females. The target audience of my magazine is mostly female; therefore the way that the target audience were represented in the magazine was very important. Very stereotypically girly colours such as pink, yellow, and light blue were used on the front cover, contents page and double page spread. Certain features throughout the magazine were intended to appeal to young girls, such as the category on the contents page called ‘boy alert’. This category featured different articles about different boy bands such as One Direction and The Wanted who the young female audience may be fans of. There is a limited representation of males in the magazine simply because the only men that are presented are male solo artists and boy bands. It is common in a magazine aimed at females that the males would be represented as objects to be desired. This applies to my magazine to an extent as there is a section called ‘boy alert’ where articles such as ‘Poppin’s page phwoarty’ would feature. In an article like this, male artists would be portrayed simply as objects to be desired. However, there are articles such as, ‘1D’s secret phobias’ where the article allows the audience to get to know the boy band and to admire the personalities of each member, rather than just the appearance.

The images in the magazine provide several opportunities to represent key social groups. On the front cover, the contents page, and on the double page spread, images of the band ‘Candy Floss’ feature. The contents page has an image that shows the girl band to be very friendly and to have a close relationship within the band. This is then supported by the double page spread with the same mise-en-scene elements, such as the smiling facial expressions but with more of a fun element. The representation of women that these images provide is extremely important because the target audience of the magazine will inspire to be like the girls in the band. Therefore, the representation of the girls being fun and bubbly but feisty is positive in that it will encourage the audience to develop character traits that will help them to succeed in life. The audience are being presented with a band with two members in the majority of the images in the magazine, which highlights the importance of a team in succeeding. Candy Floss are a suitable inspiration for young teenage girls as they provide the representation of the power of females as a group.

“Fun and bubbly, but

feisty”