How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is targeted at individuals who do not like being the same as everyone else. I am targeting females as I think there is a gap in the market for a girl's rock magazine, presently the majority are aimed at males. I am targeting my product at mainly females but also males aged between 16-20 who are interested in the genre of alternate rock.

Here are two images, my image is on the top which is featured on my contents page, and the bottom image is from a different magazine on a contents page too. There are many similarities but also differences between the images.

Both images show a male band performing a song, their posture and facial expressions are similar and from this we can tell that both image are natural and were not set up. The instruments that both bands are using are similar as they have electric guitars and a drum set. In addition to this both photographs are medium long shot, this allows the shot to focus on their relaxed body language but at the same time their facial expressions are visible. Both images use artificial lighting to help light up the artists, also the backgrounds are quite clustered which makes the image look less formal which is appropriate for the type of magazine because both magazines target young adults. Both images represent the make gender, which have different purposes in each magazine, in my magazine it could be for the girls to admire but in the other magazine(that is aimed at mainly males) the males could act as a role model for audience to look up to. The angle of both shots are slightly low angle(more on the bottom image) this is to make the bands look dominant and powerful over the viewers, which can make them seem more confident to the readers. Furthermore, in both images the band have objective gazes which makes the image look less set up and almost suggests that they are too 'cool' to look into the camera when performing.

The costume in the shots are slightly different, in the bottom image the band look less dressed up, but in my image they look smarter. I have done this because in my magazine (that is aimed at predominately girls) the audience would prefer to see the artists looking smart in order to admire them. But in the other magazine the artists act as role models to people who stereotypically do not care what they look like. Plus, my target audience will be of a lower age than the other magazine so both bands are of a similar age to the target audience of the magazine which enables the viewers to relate more to the band and consequently the magazine seems more personal. Despite the bands being dressed differently, both bands are wearing the same colours which focuses on the colour black which connotes the theme of rock, and will appeal to both of the target audiences. Plus, the setting is slightly different as my band look as though they are in a small area and the bottom image looks like the band are going to preform to a large audience.
Overall both images relate to the target audiences well and are representative of the rock genre.

In today's culture a stereotypical 'rock fan' would be seen to be a negative person to rebel and cause trouble in society. This is because of the bad press from the newspapers and television channels, but in rock themed magazines the stereotypical rock fan would be seen as a positive thing as they appreciate different traits. The magazine see rebelling to be a good trait, and they encourage Independence and confidence to stand up to people who are perhaps not being nice to you, but in products like newspapers traits like these would be considered to be bad and the person would be almost certainly trouble making in their society. This is because the magazines want to encourage the target audience to buy the magazine and by encouraging behaviour that the target audience enjoy will persuade them to buy the magazine, and by saying their traits are bad would put them off buying the magazine.

My magazine has a pro-consumerist stance as I will encourage my readers to buy certain products relating to their interests. Including advertisements will provide me with a lot of the total income of my magazine as the advertising companies want to advertise in magazine that relate to their products and will pay a lot of money in order to get it where they want it.