#2 How does your media product represent social groups?

The squeeze represents 15-20 year olds who are mainly male and are interested in rock, pop/punk and alternative rock music. Referring back to my reader profile, it is shown that 70% of my readers are students and the average age is 17. They’re interested in technology that last for a long time such as DLSR cameras, computers, games consoles and iPods as they don’t have a high budget and most of their clothes are bought at inexpensive high street shops such as Top Shop/Man, New Look and H&M. They’re quite rebellious, which is shown by the loud nature of the music they listen to and they’re interested in keeping up with the latest music and trends. As they are students they have quite a busy lifestyle with exams, coursework, social lives and maybe a part time job but they still make time to go to gigs and see their favourite bands as they’re dedicated fans.

As the social group The Squeeze aims to are carefree students, the mode of address used throughout the magazine is very laid back which I achieved by using slang and writing it in such a way that it seems as if the magazine is talking to the reader directly. Also, the images in the magazine also represent this as they show the artists as laid back and sometimes quite wild. This is shown on my features page with the playful picture of the artist with a lollipop in her mouth, pulling a face and her hair is quite messed up.

The budget of a student is quite low so as well as making the price £2.50, which is cheap for a high quality music magazine, there are also lots of giveaways and competitions to lure the audience in.

To show the rebellious nature of my social group, bands with loud music are included and also the house colours (black, red and white) are quite dark plain colours. Artists such as Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber wouldn’t be featured in The Squeeze as this doesn’t appeal to my audiences taste. But, as they like to keep up with the latest music and trends that interest them, there are lots of interviews with up and coming artists and the giveaways featured in the magazine are of new clothes or technology which would interest them.

The social group represented is modern and trendy which I show through the high quality photography used in my magazine and also the layout. I’ve chosen to do a simple, well organized layout which is very sleek and means there’s no visual clutter.

The fact that they have busy social lives means they don’t have time to sit down and read a lengthy interview so the articles are in question and answer form, with the questions bolded so that if something pops out that interests them they can just read that part. The uncluttered layout also shows this as it’s easy to pick out important parts in the magazine.

To show how dedicated the social group I’m representing are as fans of their favourite bands, there’s a section dedicated solely to fans and their opinions on music. Also, there’s a live music section which reviews gigs as well as a gig listings sections which helps to show how much the readers like to attend gigs.

Another magazine which represents the same kind of social group as I do is Kerrang! They regularly feature the band Paramore who, a lot like my featured artist, have a female singer. Below is a poster of the singer Hayley Williams from an issue of Kerrang! this picture is a lot similar to my features page main image.

There’s similarities in the facial expression as both have the angry furrowed brow and also the gritted teeth. The mise en scene is almost the same as well, as they’re both taken in a studio setting and the way they are style is similar with dark eye makeup and a bold lipstick. There’s also a use of direct address in both, showing that both magazines aim to connect with the audience.