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

My media product represents a number of different social groups and conforms to the ideologies of particular groups of people. In order for a magazine to be successful, the institution should be able to identify and implement a number of ideologies that exist within the target audience. This allows the institutions that produce/publish the magazine to be able to determine what kinds of interests the target audience has and therefore what things they should implement into the product.

To be able to identify with the audience, you must be able to understand what kind of people the audience are, what social groups they come from, their class, gender and so on. Implementing these things exists within the actual magazine itself, but also during the marketing process. The target audience for my magazine are young individuals, who will all have access to the internet and social media, and therefore this is where a lot of my marketing and promotions will take place. However, this is an example of a stereotype of my young audience and therefore not all of young individuals will be engaged in social media, but the majority will be.

There are many choices that I made in my magazine in relation to the content, that I made whilst thinking about the number of social groups within my audience and how I would try and represent them. The feature stories and sell lines that are present within my magazine were all made by myself and identify with the social groups within my target audience. These are feature stories/sell lines such as 'interviewing Van McCann', 'Leeds Fest lineup revealed' and a whole section on my contents page relating to new albums that have been released by artists in the Rock/Indie Rock genre. My audience are young individuals with demographics around  C1 and C2, who will always be looking for new music being released by their favourite artists and be interested in attending gigs and festivals across the country. Speaking of which, my plug for 'Leeds & Reading Fest 2016' is a great example of how content within my magazine represents a particular social group who enjoy attending musical events, with Leeds and Reading fest being a very popular event.

My research into demographics and social economic table helped me to identify more with my audience and particular social groups because after researching it,  I could then determine the social classes that my audience were a part of. This would then go on to help me understand the best way to talk to my audience, whether that be in the articles within my magazine, the stories that my magazine covered or how I sold and marketed my magazine to the public. A great example of this that I mentioned about where I would distribute my magazine. It would be rather unlikely that you would see my magazine in M&S or Waitrose, as these supermarkets are typically for more 'posh' and middle class people, whereas my audience would stereotypically be of more a working class.

I stereotyped my audience throughout my magazine. The types of bands and artists that I included in my magazine were the kinds of bands and artists that, stereotypically my audience would like. Also, the competition within my magazine to win tickets to Leeds and Reading Fest, not everyone who enjoys Indie Rock music would want to win those tickets, however stereotypically speaking they would do.

Also, as I mentioned in the key statistics of my reader profile, the majority of my readership are male. This is only a stereotype and a lot of females might purchase my magazine, depending on the month of sale. For example, on the issue that I have made, 'Chloe P' a female artist is on my front cover, so my magazine may be purchased by a larger number of females within that month. However, 'Chloe P' is still the only female artist that is represented in a major story in my magazine, but there are some female artists represented in my band index.