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

My magazine is aimed at the target audience of mixed genders, aged between 16 and 35. This outline is a basic target audience and people from outside this target audience may also read my magazine, although they would not be counted in the general age range. The genre of my music magazine is indie-alternative-rock-pop, the genre sounds complex and varied, however it is not; most people of the ages 16-35 listen to some form of music within this genre however if someone is an R&B or Rap music fan, this would not be suited to their taste. I would like to think that readers of my magazine would not necessarily be the same personality-wise; my magazine can welcome a broad range of personalities all with a similar music taste in common.
There is no particular ‘indie-alternative-rock-pop’ style of clothing; therefore my magazine does not represent a specific social group such as punk, or hip-hop. There is no defined fashion to the genre of music that I have chosen as people can create fashion from whatever they want; people claim that there is an ‘indie’ fashion however ‘indie’ just means individual, which means that everyone can interpret their clothes, music, interests, in their own way.

There is nothing particularly ‘alternative’ about the way my front cover is presented; for example, if it was to appeal to a gothic social group there may be a darker colour scheme used and more dramatic hair, make-up, and clothing in the photograph. 

My contents page however does have more of a quirky, unpredictable layout compared to the structured front cover; I chose to recreate the design of R.A.D magazine because I thought it was a particularly eye-catching way of presenting the contents of the magazine. The main feature of the page is of a photograph of a New York skyline from the Hudson River. However this does not represent my indie-alternative genre, as New York City is an extremely famous tourist city; although some would say it’s individual as there is nowhere else like it on the planet.

My double page spread is a simple constructed layout, and there is nothing particularly alternative about it in any way. I have followed typical magazine conventions by using 3 columns of text on each page; having quotes among the article in a bigger font; introducing the article with a short preamble.