How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When designing my magazine I had to think about the social groups and what kind of people I would aim my magazine at. My magazine only includes music and is not a hybrid genre so I didn't have to think about making it attractive to more than one audience. My magazine is aimed at people who like rock and metal music, who are interested in new bands and want to keep up to date with their favourite artists.

When choosing what I did my article about, I wanted it to be someone who is well known in music industry, I also wanted it to be a female, because it is very rare that you will see a woman on the cover of a rock magazine (with an exception of Hayley Williams). I stuck to my idea and chose Cristina Scabbia who is lead singer of band Lacuna Coil, they are very well known by fans of rock and metal music and are highly rated in the industry.

I looked around and found very few magazines which had actually included Cristina Scabbia as their cover star. But I found she had appeared on the cover of Kerrang! in 2009, this was perfect because the main inspiration for my magazine came from Kerrang! as it is directed at the exact same audience as Afterlife. I looked at the photos and found they where all very simple and taken on a plain background. I think as my magazine is focused on the music rather than the image of the artist, the photos being quite simple wasn't really a problem because it's not the most important aspect.

This the issue of Kerrang! I took my inspiration from and next to it is my magazine. As you can see, the main images are quite similar, I wanted someone who looked sort of like Cristina Scabbia as it would give my magazine a more authentic feel. I made sure some of the aspects were different so it wasn't exactly the same, for example Cristina Scabbia has her hand raised to her head, whilst the person on my magazine doesn't. They are similar in the way that the background is plain, they are both looking directly at the camera at eye level, so it does not look as though they think they are above the reader.

I think the stereotype shown by my main image is strong. The dark hair, make up and clothes represent what any female reading my magazine would want to look like, it is likely that they admire Cristina Scabbia. It also generates interest from the male audience as there would be a sexual attraction towards her. Being a music magazine, my magazine would have a pro-consumerist stance. They would advertise music, gigs and also things like clothing brands, but they would have to fit with what the target audience like.