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Evaluation question 2
By Sumayyah Bailey

How does your media product

represent particular social groups?
My media product represents the intended social group through the use of colour, star and
language/typography. For example, I used the colour pink for
masthead. The colour pink is polysemic and is often associated
as being feminine. This is appealing and identifiable to the
target audience (mainly female). This is an example of
identification in the uses and gratifications theory, which
explains that an audience consumes a text because they can
identify with certain aspects of a text, for example, ideologies,
themes, connotations or locations.
My colour scheme has a variety of colours, this is effective as they communicate a mixture
of emotion to the audience. The audience can relate to this, as teenagers experience lots of
emotion during adolescence. I used both formal and informal in my text. During
with Carys Potter
my audience research, 50% of my audience would prefer to see informal language
and the other 50% did not. As the majority of my audience are 16-24, with the
minority being 25-33, I feel that the use of both informal and formal language is
effective. This targets a wider audience based on their preference. This is an
example of a demographic audience.

How do you feel about having an album? What do your parents think
I feel so overwhelmed, this has honestly
about all of this?
been my biggest goal since I started. A few They're happy for me. I grew
people have been asking for an album, even up in a singing family, my
my parents have been nagging me about it.
mum would always be
I so grateful that I've been able to make this, singing in the kitchen and my
it feels like I'm dreaming and I never want dad would sing in the shower,
to wake up.
it got annoying sometimes.
No I'm kidding. They're just
happy that I do what I love
What lead you to choose the title, Smile?
and my mum's always said
During my parents divorce, life wasn't
to
at what you love and
easy and I didn't really see the positive in thatwork
helped me decide to start
anything. My granddad always used to tell
YouTube .
me to smile, my granddad and I had a great
relationship and he was one It feels Like im dreaming
of my best friends, he passed away
last year and I made this album in and I never want
honour of him and how much he helped to wake up
me through hard times.
What sort of inspiration did you get
to write these songs?
Well, my granddad inspired me, but a lot of
the songs are inspired by things that have
happened in my life. I think it's important
to incorporate personal things in songs, as
people can relate to them and, to me, that
makes a song special.

Did you imagine you'd get this far?

No, I always thought that singing and
dancing would just be a hobby, I only
expected a few views, but I'm so grateful for
the response I got and I still can't believe
that my hobby has turned into my career.

Interview & photograph by Sumayyah Bailey

Carys at the BBC Music Awards
2015, checking Twitter questions

27

The majority of my audience are heterosexual females. So I decided to represent my star

as modest/covered to appeal to all sexes. My star is standing side ways looking forward,
giving the audience eye contact. Direct address is effective as it helps the audience
empathise/identify with the star. The star is wearing the colours, green, red and yellow,
which connotate a mixture of emotion and are often associated with winter/Christmas. This
is a positive connotation, which compels the audience to consume the text. My star is
wearing a time turner from Harry Potter. Intertextuality is effective as it targets a wider
audience and creates a sense of community. This is an example of community in the
utopian theory, which explains that an audience consumes a text because they want to feel
part of a community/fan base.
On my contents page, social media links are available. This
targets a wider audience and links to the sense of community.
This is also an example of audience segmentation based on
media usage.