How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The image from my front cover was inspired from the KING magazine, with Nicki Minaj as the cover star. I chose to mimic this particular image because it represents her sexually which is a common convention in the Hip Hop genre and by taking this specific image, I, too would be following conventions of the hip hop genre.

As seen in the image, I think that I followed conventions that are set by other hip hop magazines by the deliberate choice of costume this was so that my target audience would be able to identify the genre I was trying to display in magazine through the Mis-en-scene of this particular photo. However, I did try to challenge this convention by reducing the amount of flesh that was being shown, I did this by the costume used in the photo, which was a white vest, a black jacket and blue jeans, two silver chains, so that it would act as iconography in order to reflect the hip hop genre that I was trying to create in my magazine the only bit of flesh that was on show was her belly which wasn’t too excessive. However this did not break conventions completely as my front cover photo still bears a little bit of flesh and uses a direct mode of address which again is another convention of not just hip hop magazines, but music magazines in general.

My double page spread mimicked a layout from the source magazine as I said earlier. I think the photo for my double page spread does develop conventions as to how women are represented in the hip hop genre. For example the costume was chosen was a yellow cardigan, blue baggy jeans and hi tops. In order for iconography I asked my model to wear silver chains and a bracelet so that it could again reflect the hip genre I was trying to display in my final product. In order to objectify my model, the choice of costume I chose was deliberate, because my model was showing a lot of flesh again following the conventions of hip hop magazines that women are usually objectified to male

dominance. I gathered inspiration from magazines such as the king magazine, VIBE, XXL and the source magazine.

To an extent, I did try to challenge the conventions of hip hop magazines. For example the way my model was dressed, although she was bearing a lot of flesh, I also asked her to wear baggy jeans so that no more flesh was on show. I think it did challenge conventions to a certain extent buy I did not break them.