Q2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A social group is a collection of people sharing similar interests and characteristics as one another. They may dress in similar clothes, wear certain colours and favour a particular type of music. In terms of my product, I aimed to exceed to expectations of the social group favouring pop music.

Some examples of social groups, and how the members of the group represent the group:

• Geeks- Intelligent, Library, Reading, Glasses, Quiet, Classical music

• Rockers- Dark clothing, Black, Red, Heavy makeup, Loud music, Big hair, Motorbikes, Heavy metal, Drugs, Alcohol, Rock and roll, Screaming, 'Kiss'

• Pop lovers- Girls, Young, Boy bands, Fan girls, Cheesy, Bubble writing, Pink, Bright colours, 'One Direction'

Q2- [Main image and Colour]

I tried to create a pop magazine that would give the pop lovers what they wanted, and focusing on their interests, and making the magazine stand out to them, as the audience.

Using my main image to represent the social group:

This 'We Love Pop' magazine uses a well known pop artist (Rihanna) to fit in with the interests of the reader.
As pop-loving young girls, they want to buy a magazine that they think looks attractive, and contains the features, stories and artists they particularly favor or even look up to as role models.
In this case, Rihanna stands out to them as a female model, and as a successful artist in the pop genre, she instantly makes it clear that this magazine is aimed at pop-lovers.

Comparing this to my own magazine, I used a similar aspect, by presenting to the audience a female model, making the audience profile very prominent, as well as giving the female readers something they can relate to. Also, I made it clear within my inside article that 'Ally Child', the artist on the cover is a successful pop star, just like Rihanna is in the real world. This makes it seem like a more realistic pop magazine, and I can imagine this would lure the young audience in to read, as they like the artist and their music.

Using my colour palette to represent the social group:

A lot of the pop magazines today have a colour palette including a lot of girly colours such as pink, purple, orange, yellow or red. Most commonly, pink and purple are used as main colours on the palette, with yellow or orange as a splash colour.

For my own magazine, I chose yellow as my splash colour as I felt it stood out against the dark pink and when used with the black text. For example the bright yellow used on the byline (the strip along the bottom of the cover) gives a pop of colour, making the eye focus on that point as they scan the page. This byline contains all the features that the magazine contains, like 'boys, gossip, pop, quiz' etc.

This magazine however, uses a dark blue colour as its background, which contrasts with the typical pop genre, as pop is mainly aimed at girls rather than boys. However this particular magazine could be aiming itself at boys aswell, marketing it to a wider audience- both genders.

Q2- [Other Conventions]

Another convention I used to represent my social group as well as luring the audience in to buying my magazine is:



A freebie- to attract my social group of pop- loving teenage girls, as I know makeup is something 11-16 year old girls would love to find in a magazine, as at this age, makeup, fashion and other materialistic things interest them.

I can relate to my audience and social group therefore know that freebies in magazine excite the audience, and make it much more appealing, therefore essentially a more popular magazine to the audience.
I also know, by enjoying pop music that this is something a lot of pop magazines include.

This is an example from an already existing magazine, 'We Love Pop'. By putting a freebie near the masthead of the magazine, in full display on the cover, the audience will see it clearly and it will lure them in to buying the magazine.
The aspect of a freebie is to attract that particular group of people (pop lovers), so again, this '20% discount for Claire's' will entice the young girls to buy the magazine, as they would enjoy spending this voucher to buy some new jewellery or makeup- something which every teenage girl enjoys!




Another convention is:

This is another aspect of my magazine (contents page) that creates a sense of recognition of my social group, representing the interests and likings of this particular group of people.

The contents of the magazine is extremely important, including everything a pop lover would enjoy reading, as the magazine is essentially made to fit their needs. As a pop magazine, I ensured there was a lot of Gossip stories, as well as Fashion and other interesting sub-topics that would make the magazine more abstract than just having pop music within every page of the magazine. This way, I fill the needs of every person within my audience.

This is from a We Love Pop contents page, there is a similar layout, with the box containing all the pages in the magazine. I developed mine further by adding subtitles such as 'Gossip' 'Music' and 'Win' which made the page look more interesting and certainly made the information clearer to pick out.

Q3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Media institutes hold a number of different media texts, and are in charge of the publication of these texts. There is a lot of planning, preparation and different elements that come with the work of the institutions.

The three main media institutes I am already aware of are:

1. BAUER
2. EMAP
3. IPC 

The main thing the companies within these institutes want is Circulation. This is the amount of sales of a product, which means if the product sells well, the company and institute receive a larger income and profit.

Other aspects that make these institutions so important are Marketing, Advertising, Branding, Publishing and the Titles/Media texts they carry- (For example carrying the magazine NME).

I will also be looking for some alternative media institutes, that may produce the magazines that inspired me to produce certain aspects of my own product. So, for example, I will look for the publishers of We Love Pop magazine, and Top of the Pops magazine (both in the genre of pop, the same as my magazine).

Q3- [BAUER]

Bauer Media Group is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany which operates in 16 countries worldwide.

The company was founded in 1875, and has more than eighty influential media brands, spanning a wide range of interests, including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parkers, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, Kerrang and 4Music. 

"Our strategy is to connect audiences with excellent content through our broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and whenever and however they want."

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/about.

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands/q

These are some of the media brands Bauer carries:

Q3- [BAUER Part 2]

Bauer also has a great website, that gives guidance on the Audience Profile of each magazine. This shows us how many males and females read the magazine, and the statistics.

Although Bauer do not carry any pop magazines, which is the genre I have chosen for my own media product, they do produce a couple of other magazines from alternative genres such as Q- a rock music magazine.

Q Audience Reader

Another example, on the Bauer magazine, is the Kerrang magazine- I can compare their audience profile to Q magazine's audience profile.

Kerrang Audience Reader

Q3- [BAUER Part 3]

Through looking further on the Bauer website, I found some extra information on the circulation and readership of some of the magazines they carry.

Firstly, these are the stats I found for Q magazine:

Marketing- The information on the Bauer magazine suggests their marketing is very good, with a clear audience profile set for each magazine they carry- for example Q with a percentage of around 68% male readers in 2012.

Circulation- With a very high circulation of 59,980, Q is a very popular magazine, aimed mainly at males.

Bauer have successfully created a high profile for Q magazine, which gives it this high circulation (number of sales).

Secondly, looking at the stats for Kerrang magazine:

Marketing- Bauer's marketing for Kerrang is also very well done, creating a clear audience profile, and making the genre noticeable for that audience, giving the audience exactly what they want. 

Circulation- With a lower number of sales than Q magazine, at 37,603 in early 2013, and a lower readership, Kerrang is clearly less popular. This shows how Bauer can't always create high profiles for every magazines, as some are always going to be favoured more and sell more.

Through advertising and marketing Bauer try to raise a media brand's profile and circulation, which is important in the process of profit making.

Q3- [IPC]

IPC Media is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year with media brands such as Now, TV Times, Decanter, Rugby World, Marie Claire and NME.

"IPC Media is committed to working in partnership with its consumers, advertisers, business partners and employees to deliver exceptional value, service, innovation and creativity."

 http://www.ipcmedia.com/about

Although this institution does not publish any 'pop' magazines, they do carry the media brand NME, which is a popular music magazine.

NME - http://www.ipcmedia.com/nme

Some of IPC's media brands are:

IPC also provides an audience profiling system for the public. This shows NME's audience, and some standard information about the magazines publishing.

Q3- [IPC Part 2]

With IPC's alternative websites, I found some extra information about NME's audience profile, circulation and marketing.
These are some of the statistics and key information for NME from the IPC Advertising site-
http://www.ipcadvertising.com/ipc-brands/nme?edition=print

Marketing- It is clear through advertising and branding that the NME brand is aimed at mainly males aged 17-30. However, still being versatile and allowing women readers too.

Circulation- Through my research, I have found that NME in particular, within IPC Media has a high circulation (number of sales) because every other aspect is so well done, which is what makes the magazine such a popular and well known brand.

Overall, IPC as a media institution clearly has an excellent reputation, and as one of the UK's leading media publishers, it provides a variety of different brands, with a mix of audiences which makes IPC applicable to the entire public.

Q3- [EMAP]

EMAP is another leading media institution, and owns industry-leading brands that sit at the heart of business communities like Retail, Health, Construction, Architecture, and Fashion.

"Our purpose is to connect professional communities and inspire them to know, 

to grow, progress and win."

 http://www.emap.com/about-us.

These are the media brands EMAP carries:

EMAP doesn't carry as many brands as other institutions such as Bauer and IPC, and doesn't have as much variety as the others, which makes it less appealing to me.

Q3- [EMAP Part 2]

Taking one magazine as an example, Drapers is a fashion magazine, and by doing some research I have found the statistics and key information on their audience and circulation.

I found this media pack, which held a lot of information about the magazine itself:

http://www.drapersonline.com/Journals/2012/04/23/z/s/x/Drapers-Display-Media-Pack-2012.pdf 

Readership for Drapers

Marketing- Here it shows that, although it is not clear on age range, the magazine makes a clear audience profile for each section of the brand- for example the most popular section at 33% readers if Womenswear.

Circulation- The circulation (amount of sales) for Drapers is 8,671 which is less than magazines such as Q in the Bauer institution. This shows that perhaps the branding and advertising for Drapers and the other magazines with EMAP are not as successful as those with IPC and BAUER.
However, although print copies are low in sales, the online views are much higher, at 91, 931 web users per month.