How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation is the act of communication using symbols and signs, with social groups having a high impact among the depiction of this.

With regards to vCity, there are 3 main social groups that we aim at with regards to target audience. This was seen as an 18-25 year old middle class male.What made vCity unique was making the target audience the same as the representation they wanted. This meant that the encoder represented the target audience they were aiming for.This allows the encoder to know exactly what the target audience want, and allowed the etxt to be free flowing and easy to understand and relate to.
From producing these social groups, maintaining a clear image towards each of these social groups is important for success, so constantly making reference to these factors is imperative. An example would be a male, so advertising male clothes in the ‘Style Special’ was a key factor.

All representation therefore goes through a choice and allows for a selective process to take place within. This can mean that a representation can be constructed through a number of attributes;

·         Experience – If the encoder has experience within the genre of music, they’ll know exactly who to aim there magazine at what interests them with regards to said genre.

·         Intertextuality – Linking the text within to the genre of the magazine is very important as its this what will attract the reader into wanting to buy. If this wasn’t incorporated, vCity would have been poorly received by the target audience.

·         Connotative language – maintaining reasonable respect for the reader was a very important attribute of mine, as it allowed me to make sure vCity wasn’t giving out easily understandable text. It allowed me to write the language in a view that wasn’t ridiculous to understand, but that it made the decoder ponder on certain topics. If I made the reader think, I was hoping that they would think back positively into the past of the genre and will give off a contented vibe when reading. This also plays a key link with the mode of address which in vCity is seen as casual.

Maintaining a positive media representation is very important with regards to the 3 social groups I'm aiming at.  In the midst of the hypodermic model, making sure that these groups of people aren’t seen negatively is very imperative and allowed me to not have a 1 way view of thinking, instead I had to maintain all points of view, stopping vCity be responsible for any negative outcomes from the content.