Throughout the entire production of my magazine, I have had to keep in mind how each section and component is appealing and identifiable with the social groups I was aiming to target. Within the hip hop genre, teenagers or the younger people that are interested in this music are often represented in a certain way. Outside of hip hop magazines this can often be portrayed in a negative light so the social group I am choosing to represent will be represented positively in a way that they themselves will also agree with.
The cover of my magazine features the main star crouched down in an urban setting. This represents (and this is mentioned in the article) where the star has come from and therefore builds on the reality and believability of the star. This urban setting allows the target audience to be able to relate to the star and therefore the magazine. This also means that they can see themselves in the same situation and admire this about the magazine. This is commonly used by Hip Hop magazines where the setting of the cover image is an intense direct gaze that has a car or graffiti, by conforming to the common conventions of other hip hop magazines I am representing my target social group audience.
Also on the cover, they see someone who is in a ‘natural’ setting as opposed to someone who is on a photoshoot set with expensive clothing. They see the model as a future goal for themselves.
The cover lines on the cover page also represent these young, urban social groups. This, for example, is done through the listing of the different artists that also have the same types of social groups interested in them. This demographic are all interested in these big R&B artists. This means that they are being targeted and represented at the same time.
Also on the cover, I chose to use the masthead and magazine name ‘Sique’. This represents youth and urbanity as it is a slang term that most young people would be able to identify to. The term ‘sique’ is pronounced ‘sick’ and means something ‘cool. This automatically enables the targeted social groups to see the magazine as something particularly for them and something that is able to represent what their interests are amongst other areas.
The writing style of the interview on the double page spread allows people of all intellectual levels to be able to read and understand the content. This is different to something like the national geographic magazine that may use more complex words and would require a higher level of thought and understanding. My audience is most likely to be young and buying the magazine for information as well a sense of escapism. This means that they will be able to understand all of the content. In the double page spread, the article goes into the stars’ background and her struggles that the social group I am targeting are likely to relate to, this again gives information about them as it lets readers outside of the main social groups understand the young people in a way they wish to be known.
The gender of my magazine and the social groups it represents are gender neutral and do not apply to a main or specific gender. This means that the colour scheme, style of writing and content will apply to all genders and therefore represent the diverse social group that the magazine is based around. I have gone against the common conventions of a typical Hip hop magazine by choosing a female model to feature on the cover. This is subverting typical views of women on the cover of magazines as they are often seen as an accessory to men. This is explained by Laura Mulvey in her 'Male Gaze' theory. She says that women are an erotic element for viewers to look at. I have also subverted this as I have not put my model in provocative clothing. Below are some examples of where magazines have used women to gain a male audience.
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