1. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT REPRESENT
PATICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
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2. The genre for my music magazine is Indie pop, the genre is a mixture between the
'Independent' genre which aims to be extremely diverse and the 'pop' genre which is very
cheerful, easy going and usually surrounded by a female dominated audience. The social group
I aimed to target through my magazine a female middle class white teenager ranging the age
15+. I made sure when I was creating my magazine to keep my demographic in mind and
create my magazine surrounded by teenage girls, but particularly middle class white teenage
girls, that listen to the genre indie pop’s interests.
For example I included artists names that I believed this particular social group would be
interested in, from the Indie/pop genre for example Best Coast. The singer Bethany
Costellino, the lead singer of Best Coast, conveniently fits into this sub culture being a
middle classed white teenage girl the audience for my magazine will recognise this and
associate with this..
Artist displayed on my front cover,
Best Coast, who fits into my
particular social group: white
middle class teenage girl

3. Now that I had identified my social group, I had to look a similar magazines that attempted to
represent this social group in their magazine. I decided to firstly focus on the model and the way a
female model is posed on music magazines to represent social groups.
I realised that female models used for front covers were always seen within the ‘Male Gaze’ Laura
Mulvey coined the term ‘male gaze’ in 1975. She believed that within the media audiences have to
view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.
The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, the female viewer must experience media
secondly, by identification with the male.
I decided to incorporate this ‘male gaze’ idea into my music magazine and the pictures I took
to a certain extent to represent my social group of white teenage middle class female girls who
are interested in the indie pop genre.

4. I made sure my model would appeal to my particular social group of white middle class
teenage girls ranging from the age 15+ firstly by the model I chose for my front cover, she
had to be specific so my social group could associate with her. Essentially, my model
represents my social group being a white female teenage girl. My social group would be more
likely to buy/look at a magazine which represented them.
My model for my front cover clearly
represents my social group: white middle
class teenage girl.
I secondly then tried to represent this particular social group through the
clothing I dressed my model in. As my social group would be within the
middle class, I assumed teenage girls from here would be able to afford and
keep up with fashionable current trends. I made sure to dress my model in
a Hawaiian shirt which is very modern and current with trends which my
social group would be following. Through this, my social group would look a
my magazine and feel represented through my choice of model and her
clothing.
Hawaiian shirt – modern and current
which my social group would be
wearing.