Evaluation Question 2

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

My media product is intended to represent multiple social groups, but the most prominent social group associated with the 'synthwave' genre are male teenagers and young adults, namely 'hipsters' and gamers who are the largest and most active and internet-savvy listener base for this genre from my personal experience. This makes them the primary social group. The secondary social group that this magazine is intended to represent is the generation of people born during the 70s and 80s who experienced their youth during the 80s and early 90s. This generation is likely to now be in their 30s and 40s,

making it difficult to represent both while not deterring either. In order to represent the middle aged, male I featured an adult with grey hair and classic aviator sunglasses on the front cover and in the contents page. Also, the opportunity to win the Nintendo Entertainment System was an element used to appeal to and represent both social groups as the Primary social group contains a lot of collectors and enthusiasts of these old consoles, and the Secondary social group may have at some point owned one as a kid or teenager, appealing to their nostalgia factor. the magazine's appeal to the older Secondary generation is in nostalgia value which is how a link can be made with the current modern retro enthusiast generation (the Primary social group)

The magazine does conform to some stereotypes associated with the genre, mostly around the area of costume choice and other elements of the magazine like the use of red connotating both anger and lust, imagery like the star lit mountain with the neon writing on it much like the Hollywood sign - further linking the genre with Hollywood and action movies, and fonts notably the military vehicle font used on the "TOP 15" list top left of the magazine cover which is associated with war and action movies.

Furthermore, the model on the front cover is wearing a black leather jacket, has facial hair, and aviator sunglasses with a lightning bolt superimposed onto them. These represent the potential audience and the social groups associated with the genre as stereotypical hot-blooded males like the Hollywood action movie heroes and anti-heroes of the 80s, namely Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies.

Finally, in the other two pages, I have represented artists 'Lazerhawk' and 'Mitch Murder' with students of a similar age groups to what their real life counter parts actually are which appeals to the primary audience more and represents them accurately.


In terms of economic status, this magazine represents no particular socio-economic groups. The representation of target audience of my magazine and the genre is neither particularly rich nor poor. While the representation may fall into the working/middle class area as a result of this, the target audience is assumed to be relatively economically stable and not in poverty; equally, they are not assumed to be particularly wealthy.


Summary: Summarized, my target social groups are intended to be primarily middle class, teenage and young adult males who enjoy video games, action movies, and / or the 1980/1990s, as well as secondarily being middle class, middle aged adult males who also enjoy any of the above, but who also have a strong sense of nostalgia for that time period