2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I wanted the tone of my magazine to be insightful and inspiring to the reader and give a sense of exploration as my demographic are at the age where everything is new and exciting. To reflect this tone within the pages of my magazine I wanted to achieve an almost ‘guide-book’ like magazine for my audience with a modern edge to it. Ensuring my magazine had a mode of address that was both alternative and concise. 

After carrying out my research I found that there was a gap in the market for an NME type magazine for girls, I started to refine my demographic. I wanted the magazine, through the use of the images, the article and design layout, to come across as confident. Through the article especially I wanted it to portray my audience as do-it-yourself through the theme of the article being ‘a small-town girl makes it big in the music industry’, especially off her own back. To do this I emphasised the fact that Eliza-May used social networking sites such as YouTube to promote herself and this displays the fact that if you put your mind to it, you can follow in those footsteps too and make anything happen for yourself. This again refers to the guide-book theme which represents the do-it-yourself approach on a smaller scale. This also reflects my audience – thereby representing them within the pages – as sharing similar dreams and aspirations of success, adventure and freedom to Eliza-May. This links to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as the ‘self-actualisation’ need is being fulfilled through my audience’s ability to relate to the content within my magazine. In doing this, it challenges dominant ideology in promoting an image of young women as confident, independent and powerful.

I also used colloquial language such as ‘Other Stuff’ on my contents page and ‘Big-Thing’ on my double page spread. This is to make my magazine easily relatable and again, empahsises the hand-book theme, almost coming across as not being bothered to write the full and proper words. However, this is not to come across as if my demographic don’t care which is a strong stereotype of teenagers and young-adults and is not the impression I want to make. My demographic are making the transition from high-school to university or work so this is a time of hard-work, so when this magazine is an outlet for them in their down time, they don’t want to have to use complete proper English when relaxing. 

Additionally, I wanted to firmly set the idea that it is not just males that enjoy listening to alternative music. Up until my magazine there were no popular magazines that included alternative and indie music that were aimed at females. Girls would buy magazines such as the NME and Q, even though they were aimed at men so I wanted my magazine to be taken seriously amongst the ‘big guns’. To do this I wanted to represent my demographic as being as serious about music as the guy’s magazines were and one way I did this was by adding more artists’ names along the top banner as well as the bottom banner instead of putting another article. This also attracts my audience as they believe my magazine is all about the music and confirms the fact that my demographic and magazine take music seriously like the men’s music magazines.

A usual stereotype of magazine images is when women are photographed in line with the male gaze and the way in which photoshopping has contributed to the idea of a hyperreal perception of women. Jean Baudrillard was a social theorist who examined the way technological processes affect social change and worked on the way advances in media technology have changed representations of reality. He developed a theory that tried to explain the effects of these changes on society. This theory was that every human experience is a simulation of reality rather than reality itself. The media and its advances in digital technology in programmes such as photoshop are key to the creation of what Baudrillard described as a hyperreal world where all reality and meaning is replaced with digitally enhanced signs and symbols. He termed examples of hyperreal as simulacra and argued that there is no such thing as reality anymore. Photoshopping has created an impossible reality which is planted into the minds of girls and boys from a very young age through the means of media. This coincides with the ‘self-actualisation’ part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as people believe what they see in these images is real-life and feel they are not meeting their potential if they do not look like these images. However, people still aspire to the dreams and aspirations represented in magazines, even though these images represent a figure which could never be achieved by anyone as it is not real-life, only an enhancement. They still buy into this impossible lifestyle when they purchase my product, which is why these representations are so powerful and, according to some people, potentially damaging. This, along with using techniques from the theory of the male gaze, reinforces the submissive role of women within society. Taking this into consideration and feeling the effects the media can have on girls of any age made me want to include natural girls with natural beauty to show girls that they can be beautiful and powerful, naturally. However, after carrying out a task where we examined the effects of the male gaze on girls of a young age without their awareness of the theory I found that my magazine would have to approach the male gaze. The assignment was to hold a focus group of around 20 eleven year old girls who were asked to individually rank the cards seen below in order of attractiveness. They were then asked in groups of around 5-6 why they ranked the way they did. Some answers we received were ‘she looks ill’ (referring to image number 6) and ‘she looks like a man’ (referring to image number 5). They also mentioned that the first image (the most photoshopped image) was ‘pretty’ and ‘she is touching her face’ which was an astounding comment as the male gaze uses poses where women touch their face to create a child-like image, therefore being submissive.

After conducting this research and coming to terms with the reality that young girls are moulded into this way of thinking from such a young age, that I would have to incorporate images which stood in line with the male gaze and photoshop these images to create a hyperreal perception of my model as this way of thinking is imbedded within my demographic and to challenge it would be too radical for my target audience. To be able to challenge such an established way of thinking means that my demographic would have to understand the theory of the male gaze and hyperreality to be able to go against it and this is not something I can be certain of when constructing my magazine and in the end, I want people to buy my magazine and this would deter people from doing so. However, I photographed my model in a powerful way to represent my hardworking and successful demographic but used photoshop to still attract my audience. 

The age of my demographic is between the ages of 16-24, a time when big decisions are made and the step into adulthood begins. Decisions are made on whether or not university is an option which, leads to my representations of social class. I wanted my magazine to be enthusiastic about the idea of exploring new things and embracing individuality, however, these experiences come at a price which some people may not have the opportunity to take part in. Gap years and the opportunity to travel is very middle class and so is the prospect of university. However, I wanted my magazine to relate to people of the ABC1 demographic which includes higher-working class people as well as middle class people. This is why my article, even though not directly relating to class, gives the idea that anything is achievable no matter what background you come from. Additionally, the idea of the blog means that my audience can interact with one another so even if my magazine comes across as if it may not relate to working class girls, they are still able to seek advice on gap years/universities which may suit them through the online blog, compiled of other readers which may be of the same social class as them. This means that my magazine does not come across exclusively for middle-class people and gives a more inspirational tone to any prospective reader from any social class.