How does your media product represent particular social groups
- 1. How does your media product represent particular social groups? These social groupseitherneedtochallenge,acceptordevelopcertainstereotypes. Inourmedia product“Heart of Innocence”,we have presenteddifferentsocial groupsinmanydifferent ways. These social groupsare mainlyage,social class and gender. Withinourmediaproduct,we representedgenderinmanyways.Withthe mother, we challenged stereotypesbutalsofollowedthem.Forexample, fromthe highangle shotthatwe did,we intended to make the motherseemsmall andweakandvulnerable comparedtothe big,scarywoods.Also, she isseenas weakbecause of howtroubledand panickedshe isafterlosingherchild.Insome ways we challengedstereotypeswiththe motherbecause althoughshe isseenasweakshe is alsoseenas strongand brave because she isin the woodsonher ownat night,eventhoughshe isscared,she isstill brave. Thischallengesthe stereotypethatwomen are frail andfeeble. The motherisrunningaroundhelplesslylookingforherdaughterandgetting quite emotional aswe cansee fromthe POV shots,thisisgenerallyatypical female trait. Also,the motherisseeninour mediaproductas verymaternal andcaring whichisa typical stereotype of a mother. The fact that the motherisin herpyjamasbecause she wasso desperate tofindherchild showsmore maternal instinct,she playsmore of an expressive role. Thisisapositive representationof femalesbecause itshowsshe ismotherly.Usuallyin horror films,the femaleisseenaspettyandoftenthe weakergenderwhereasinourmediaproduct,thisisnot the case. However,the female doesseemdisorientated and scaredwithoutthe presence of amale because she isveryemotional. The daughterfollowstypical horrorconventionsbutIthinkagainshe challenges and followsstereotypes.Thisisbecause the daughterisseenasvulnerable becauseshe isonher ownbut at the same time the musicplayingsuggeststhatshe isscaryand not as weakas we think. Alsothe maskthe daughteriswearingsuggeststhatwe are tryingto hide heridentityandalsoit suggeststhatwhateverisunderneathshouldnotbe seen. All of the charactersinour mediaproduct are female.Thisshowsthatfemalesare superiorbecauseof the absence of the maleswhichis unusual because the male figure isusuallythe strongergenderinthese typesof filmsbecause often the malesare there to protectthe female butbecause there’snomalesinitsothe femaleshave to fendforthemselves. Alsothe low-keylightingwithinthe openingsignifiesthatthe younggirl is sinisterandscarierthanthe Mother. We emphasisedthisbyaddingzoomsandwheneverwe saw the girl the camerawouldzoomintothe darknesswhere the girl wasandthismakesthe younggirl feel more superiorbecausethe Motherisafraidof her. Anothersocial groupwe have representedisage.The motherisobviouslyalotolderthanthe child, thisrepresentsmore of arealisticviewof atypical family. The factthat the childhas more power overthe motherchallengestypical stereotypesof age. Also,the motherisbeingtormentedbyher childwhoismuch youngerthanshe is,thischallengesstereotypesbecauseoftenthe motherwould have control of herchildbutnot inthis situation.Also,we basedourmotheronour targetaudience (female andunder35),the motherisunder35 so we hopedthat the audience couldrelate tothe
- 2. character throughoutthe opening. The youngercharacterisscarierthanthe oldercharacterwhichis challengingtypicalstereotypes,youwouldn’texpectamothertobe scared of her ownchild,and you’dexpectthe opposite. We hopedtopresentthissocial groupbyhavingquite anage gap betweenthe twocharacters. In our mediaproduct,we have triedtorepresentsocial class.From the location,youcan see thatthe motheris mainlyworkingclass/middle class.We cansee thisfrom the clothesshe iswearing(dressinggownandpyjamas) and where she is.The buildingwe filmedinisderelictand oldand not exactlyfancyoranything butthe clothesshe was wearingwere not of a lowerclassperson,herclotheswere notbad,she justdidnot have time to getdressedbecause she wasina rush. We made sure that our social classfitthe demographicsof ourtarget audience whichwasmiddle/workingclassandtherefore they wouldbe able torelate to the motherinsome way.We triedto representthissocial classthroughthe mother’sclothesandalso location. In conclusion,Ithinkthatour mediaproductrepresents3mainsocial groupsinmany differentways. These social groupshelpusto drawin our targetaudience andmake ourmediaproductrelatable for manydifferentpeople. Ourmediaproductpresentsfemalesinamore positive wayandwe didthis because ourTarget Audience Interviewsenabledustofindoutwhat people wanttosee andthey saidtheywantedthe femalestobe incontrol foronce and wantedthe femalestobe superior.Thisis whywe representedthiscertainsocial group.Forsocial class,we figureditwouldbe agood ideato representworkingclasssince thatisthe social classof our target audience.Withregardstoage,we made sure that the actors fit the demographicof under35. We hopedthatthese factorsenabledus to representcertainsocial groups.