Social class and status media
- 1. Social Class and Status ‘People Just Do Nothing’ is a mockumentary set in west London. The programme follows the lives of MC Grindah (Mustafa) and DJ Beats (Chegwin), who are of a lower social class, yet within their own group have their own ranking status. The mise en scene of the narrative portrays the characters to be working class citizens through many aspects. For example the costumes of the characters plays a massive part in the representation of the characters, they all wear tracksuits and baseball hats from an unknown brand. This is stereotypical of people with low income and of a lower social class and status. This particular episode I’m talking about (series 2 episode 1) used costume massively to convey the representation of the characters. Not only did the older characters wear unknown brands of tracksuits, but also the little girl who was getting christened wore a poor fitted dress to her own christening. This was because her mother bought a bigger dress so she could wear it again once she is older, again trying to save money. The setting and location of the sitcom also plays a massive part in the understanding of the narrative. It’s set in west London, in a rundown block of flats, this again conveys to the audience that the characters are of a lower social class and don’t have much status. Other locations the characters are placed such as random concrete stairs and randomly in streets around west London are places people stereotypically expect to find ‘chavs’ and people who don’t have jobs. Status of the characters is signified through the performance of the characters. In this certain episode two of the characters are trying to be chosen to be godfather for the little girl, therefore their behaviour changes towards the father. Status is well represented in this episode as the father of the little girl getting christened clearly has a higher ranking status as the other two men almost beg him to be godfather. For example, one of the men competing opens the car door for the father. The lightening used on the show is very dim; personally I think this represents the social class of the characters on the show. Stereotypically the working class are looked down upon from the middle class, which is signified in the lighting. The show its self would be a comedy to the middle class because stereotypically the life style of the people on this show has a comedic value. For example one of the characters went to a rave all night and did numerous drugs, he then went to the church for the christening and was sick into a vase. In one of the scenes where the characters go back to the flat for the after party of the christening the décor is home made streamers made out of paper. This evidently shows they didn’t have enough money to pay for decent decorations, again this is showing the social class of the characters, which is working class.