EVALUATION Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I designed my magazine with a teenage age range of 16-19 in mind for both females and males. As you can see from my audience research that I handed out to people from the college the most interest in genre of music is seen through my research is R&B/Hip Hop. Therefore I did a magazine research through the internet and browsed through different R&B/Hip Hop magazines and took note of what similarities and differences they contained from other type of magazines. I decided to feature a female with a strong, confident personality to represent the female artists. I represented her in the way that the audience will be able to identity what the magazine is about by having her being portrayed stereotypically by that genre.

To identity what type of magazine and who it’s aimed can be seen through the main image costume, body posture and props. R&B/Hip hop artist take in lots of consideration of their image and style. For the artist costume, as it is aimed for teenagers I wanted her to look youthful and trendy. By achieving this look and to represent my particular social group I dressed the artist in an urban, street style of clothing. Also as she is a young, arising star it’s more likely that she would know what sense of style or clothing she has adapted to yet as she still has to grow in the industry.

The artist in the foreground which is a female is dressed in a typical leather hoody jacket with a khaki string vest underneath, an urban type of clothing for females. The model is black as this is a big stereotype in representation of the rap genre. I did not want to overdo it as I wanted it to be as natural and relatable as possible. A leather hoodie is often associated with UK street culture and youth gangs yet also representing teenagers. It could also represent the underground street rappers in the UK as they are usually from an underprivileged area therefore there would not be much bling or flashy clothing. Her hair is styled in a straight sleek bob (long at the front and short at the back) with a side swept fringe to add a bit of edge to her facial structure. Her posture is strong yet showing personality as a young teenager with her both her arms holding her jacket to show that she’s ready. Although this is not the usual convention of rap/hip hop music magazines as typically female rappers consists of wearing jewellery’s and sexually provocative clothing as seen from the likes of Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj and Keri Hilson.