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

I chose the image of Agyness Deyn from the cover of the June 2007 edition of Vogue, as like my image the models eyes are the main draw of the image. The image also bears a similarity with the basic colours, instead of being pink; my image uses blue as its feature colour. Both images have plain white backgrounds, with a close up shot of the head and shoulders, rather than the conventional mid-shot. However Deyn has her arms in the photo and is holding props, whereas my image is much more minimalist which fits well with the house style of my magazine.

Both images would appeal to my target audience as both are fashion shots, and rather than displaying a particular attitude, both are intended to sell a product. This is cohesive with the view of my target audience, which are very consumerist, especially given their ABC1 social demographic. However their psychographic profile dictates that they would like to believe that they are eco-friendly, so the sale element has to be in a subtle, unassuming manner. Combining it with an aspect of their psychographic that features heavily in their lives, fashion and fashion photography, makes it more acceptable and therefore more accessible.

Both models are fair skinned with blue eyes, connoting innocence. This fits well with the title of my magazine “Ingenue” which means innocent or naïve.
As my target audience is female, I chose to go against convention and have woman on the cover of my music magazine, where 70% of music magazine have a male cover model. My model looks between the 21 – 40 age range my magazine would appeal to so my audience would not feel threatened by her presence on the cover.


I also took inspiration for the shot from the image of Celia Ammerman. The high fashion edge to what is essentially a beauty shot would appeal greatly to my audience. I decided that to make my product more accessible to a wider audience psychographic, who would buy my magazine for the music or politics over the fashion aspect, I would remove some of the high fashion element, however keeping the white mascara and blue lips ensured that the contemporary look remained. My camera angle was front on, rather than the slightly lower angle of the Ammerman image. This makes my image look a lot less imposing, once again connoting innocence and creating cohesion with the title. Ammerman’s gaze is very knowing, and this would appeal to my audience’s intelligence.

All my images display white, middle class women who would fit into my psychographic profile. The images tap into the sub-culture of wealthy women who have multiple interests and share the desire to appear unique, environmentally friendly and fashionable. They want to be up to date and before the trend, and I believe the images I have chosen depict the exclusive, cool and knowledgeable lifestyle my audience crave. The images portray a stereotypical fashion style pose: alluring, arresting gaze with the slightly parted lips, or in other words a serious, slightly superior image rather than a smiling one.