2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The male gaze is a Marxist, feminist, Freudian, psychoanalytic theory thought up by Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. She stated that the audience, and thus the camera, is male and so gains visual pleasure from a dominant, voyeuristic perspective. We live in a patriarchal society in which men are dominant which is why females will normally be shot in submissive and passive poses as this is what men will deem as desirable. Mulvey wrote that the audience is generally put into a masculine position meaning that women are often objectified where the frame 'cuts' them into abstract shapes to increase their attractiveness. This reinforces the dominant ideology that men are powerful and women are compliant. While women do not feature on my magazine pages, I did use some of the techniques that would usually represent women to represent the male in my articles in order to 'soften' his image. Essentially, I have attempted to strike a balance. By having him sitting cross-legged, I have placed him in a position that is more relaxed and not at all intimidating which fits the focus of my article which is one of him 'confiding' in the reader. However, his T-shirt (which features the image of two half-naked women kissing) illustrates that he is still a man who is able to reassert his masculinity should he wish to. So, he is represented in a 'softer' mode which is atypical yet his T-shirt serves to reinforce the dominant ideology that men are more powerful than women resulting in the objectifying of women.

My model due to his being 17, white and male would be a stereotypical type of person to see featured in a rock magazine. My audience would also probably have these characteristics and so find it easier to identify with my model due to his looks. The stereotype is that white teenage boys mainly listen to rock music which is why so many magazines such as 'Kerrang' target their magazine specifically at that demographic. My constructed images help to reinforce this as they show the model looking exactly how the audience aspire to look and be like. The dominant ideology is a Marxist structure in which certain beliefs and ideas are held by the majority of people. Regarding the male gaze, it is thought that women are the weaker sex. These hegemonic values help to decide what kind of images to use as I would want to appeal to a majority of people who think a certain way and so create my pages according to that. Normally in a magazine, images would be airbrushed. However, as I want my magazine to be purely about the music I decided to only change the tones and brightness of my images to make them look professional yet not so striking that they distract from the article. So even though I only changed the images slightly they are still hyper real and so are not completely accurate portrayals of how my model looks in real life. However, I felt this had to be done in order for my magazine to seem en par with other magazines of its stature such as 'The NME' etc. By using attractive models and inspirational artists within my magazine I have ensured that I am going according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs in which he states that aspirations are something each being needs in order to survive. Thus by having someone the audience will aspire to be like will help popularity and sales of my magazine as people will buy the issue to read up on the artist featured and attempt to be more like them. The design of my pages had been thought out to carefully represent my audience. I chose bold, striking colours such as red and blue as I would presume my audience to be defiant and rebellious and outside the norm considering that they listen to music which would not be deemed as mainstream. Also, the language used will appeal to teenagers as it is informal and simple which is what they prefer and are used to. Furthermore, the typography follows the same theme of being quite big and bold and loud in order to entice the reader. Also, the use of buzzwords and colloquialisms help to represent my audience. I chose to use words that they would use without much thought when talking to their friends in order to make my magazine seem as though it was not talking down to them but instead interacting with them like a peer. My audience are more than likely to be going through a rebellious, defiant phase so this will help in targeting them more than other audiences. The bold colours and design elements also represent my audience. The red has connotations of danger and passion i.e. the love my audience has for music whereas the blue can easily represent masculinity and freedom i.e. my demographic is easy to be free from rules from their school, parents etc. Also, by making my pages seem slightly scruffier I am attracting teenagers who take pleasure in a more chaotic, crazy lifestyle. Regarding ethnicity I mentioned a lot of bands on my contents page that feature young, white men. This is generally what my demographic would listen to and so it made sense to feature these artists. The colloquialisms used relate more to the white ethnicity than other colours in order to attract that audience. Also, my artists tastes and sentiments discussed within the article are something that white teenagers would find more interesting perhaps compared to other races.