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

My magazine is aimed at teenage males aged 13-17. I want my magazine to be seen as an escape for my demographic as my demographic are at an age where they are taking loads of exams that will potentially decide their future. To fulfill this I have to make sure my magazine has the right mode of address for my audience, keeping them hooked to reading my magazine. 

Because of my target demographic I wanted to follow most stereotypes of social groups. My demographic are quite young and are unaware of the amount of stereotypes that are subconsciously shown in the media and as a result are too young to want to challenge these beliefs, so it would be safer to follow them if I want my magazine to be popular. 

Contradictory to this, there is only one image of a female in my magazine and I have used that image to break the theory of the "male gaze." The male gaze is a theory put forward by film theorist Laura Mulvey, it suggests that the camera (when taking images for magazines or shooting footage for films etc) has the point of a view of a heterosexual male, as it is males who largely control the media industry. The theory suggests that almost all women are shot in line with this theory, women are shot often in submissive poses such as lying down, looking away from the camera as it makes them seem weaker and submissive to men. Although my magazine is aimed at males so it would seem wise to have the image of a female shot in line with the male gaze, I have chosen to try and break away from this, having the female model staring straight at the camera, showing her power and dominance. I have decided to not use the male gaze in my magazine as I want to try and break the stereotype of women being weaker than men and that they are objects to be viewed. 

Here is an image in line with the male gaze, the female model has been shot from a higher angle to show her as weak, she also has one finger on her mouth, a pose often done by young girls. This again shows her to be weak and submissive to men as it portrays her as a defenseless person.



Although I have tried to break that representation, a representation of images in magazines I have followed is that of Jean Boudrillad's theory on "hyperreality." He suggested that the advances in technology has made the world a "simulation of reality." What this means in terms of magazines is that images are so edited and photo shopped that they have stopped being real and have become hyperreal, as they have been made to look even better than real life. My target demographic have grown up around hyperreal images and footage so trying to challenge this theory by not editing images in my magazine would be pointless as my demographic are so used to these over-edited images, that they just wouldn't buy my magazine if the images were unedited.

   

I have made sure to edit my images so they fit in with what my target demographic have come to expect from images in the media.