1.B question - Audience Representation and Media Language?

During the process of my AS media coursework, I created an indie music magazine targeted at an audience demographic of males and females aged 18 – 24, belonging to social classes C1-D. I chose to aim my magazine towards this audience after researching genre conventions for indie music magazines and realising that this is the most common audience demographic used. I looked at real media products such as ‘Q magazine’ and ‘indie magazine’ in order to gain a better understanding on genre conventions, and how I can effectively apply these to my own work. I therefore conducted additional research into audience theory, and looked at Blumler and Katz (1973), and found that my audience would want to read my magazine for entertainment purposes.

In reference to my masthead, I wanted a colour that reflected appeal and a relaxed atmosphere in order to suit the indie genre, and I also attempted to create a house style by repeating the use of this colour as my main cover line. I decided that I wanted this colour to be green, as it connotes freshness and energy, therefore representing a positive atmosphere to my audience. This also links in with Hebdige’s theory (1998) of ‘youth as fun’. I positioned my masthead at the top of my cover in order to make it stand out and capture the audience’s attention, with my main cover line positioned over the top of my main subject/image to follow genre conventions and appeal to the audience. I used rhetorical questions (‘Who?’ ‘Me?’)  alongside my main image depicting a female model looking slightly rebellious to interest the audience and engage them. My slightly rebellious representation of my female model could show support for Hebdige’s theory of ‘youth as troublemaker’, due to the positioning of her body and the clothes she is wearing. Despite this, my female model doesn't show evidence for Laura Mulvey’s 'Male Gaze' theory (1975), as I didn't want to sexualise her for the male audience, as I felt like this doesn't represent the genre accurately and therefore won't appeal to my target audience. Whilst my model doesn't support Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory (1975), I wanted to give her a feminine appearance by featuring her wearing a dress, to add to the surrealistic atmosphere. This possibly disrupts Hebdige's 1998 theory of youth as 'trouble and fun', because my model is represented as being surreal.

My colour palette consists of three main colours (green, white and grey) due to the fact that I wanted to establish a house style in order to present high production values and follow genre conventions.  I also decided on these colours because they stood out effectively against the background, as well as demonstrating to my audience that variation is present in my work.

I wanted my layout to be organised in order to appeal to my audience whilst simultaneously following genre conventions. In order to eliminate the risk of overcrowding my product with too many cover lines, I positioned some of my cover lines at the top and bottom of my cover to create a more organised layout.

In terms of typography, I have used bold, modern fonts in order to give my magazine a professional appearance throughout. In order to follow conventions as closely as possible, I researched a range of regional magazines and studied their typography carefully in order to understand how I could apply this style accurately to my own work. I used a mixture of bold and italic fonts, which can be demonstrated in my magazine title 'Cornish Life', where I enlarged the 'Cornish' and made it bold to emphasis it and make it stand out, whereas 'life' was a slightly smaller size and presented in italics. I wanted to create this effect because I felt as if the 'Cornish' needed to be bigger in order to stand out and gain attention from the audience, who will then understand the purpose of my magazine, as well as knowing the region it is featuring.