How does your media product represent particular social groups?

1. How does your media product
represent particular social groups
Question 2

2. Stereotypes
 A stereotype is categorising a group of people and making certain assumptions about them. We
generalise based upon a “grain of truth”
 The most common way to stereotype is CRAGS, which we can link to our media product
 CRAGS stands for Class ,Race ,Age ,Gender and Sexuality
 There is nothing to notify the audience of any of the characters sexualities
An Example:
Family Guy brought an episode out which
turned the Griffin family from being
American in to being British. If you
compare the other pub picture which is
their usual hangout to the UK created pub
you can see already stereotypes have been
made by all Britons having bad teeth. Also
the pub has been changed to suit the
stereotypical British pub. They also have
the stereotypical posh British accent.

3. Class
 We have used class stereotypes, as the detective who is later murdered in the opening sequence
is in the C income bracket as he is in a low paid job in the police force. This is shown by his small
home in a city suburb, as he is in middle class he believes he will have a stable income and relies
on promotions for an increase in income rather than a change in career or job.
 We challenged the stereotype of class as our female is in the B income bracket, she is more
powerful which is un-stereotypical as being a higher income bracket usually demands respect,
however we later subvert this by the revealing of the female being the murderer. We then follow
the traditional stereotype of her true class as she cheats the class system through murder.

4. Race
 Both our characters are white in the opening sequence, the stereotypical view of the white
policemen being more prevalent, leading to claims of institutional racism against the police
however we challenge this by the female being revealed as the murderer, it promotes the
ideology of institutions are corrupt.

5. Age
 Both characters in the opening sequence are supposedly in their mid to late twenties, stereotypically
they are juniors in their recent careers and at a low ranking, we have followed this with the male
detective as he is only a rookie to the detective division in the police force, however we have subverted
this by the female as although she is younger than the male, she is at a higher ranking and has already
climbed the industry ladder to a higher paid job. This also promotes the representation of Women of
her being an empowered female (discussed later)
 We suggest the male being the rookie through his dialogue as he says “have you got any tips for a
rookie” and also his mise-en-scene, although he is wearing a black suit it is not as professional as the
female’s, suggesting he is at a lower ranking.
 Although our female actress is below her 20’s, the use of costumes aided to her looking at an older age
as she wore a suit under a black coat which would be more worn by an older age. Also her looking
younger helped subvert the stereotype of younger people having a low paid job and having a low
ranking in their respected career.

6. Gender
 Men are stereotypically reliant on women to do housework, this is shown in the opening
sequence by the mess in the kitchen with dishes and glasses everywhere and the hygiene of the
fridge. Also the stereotype of men being lazy and messy is connoted by the state of his home
and how he lives his life. The stereotype of males being dominant in the police force is subverted
by the power the female detective has over the male and how she advises him to become better
at his job.
 We challenge the stereotypes of the female gender as we encourage the empowered female by
her being in control of her sexuality and subverting stereotypes of women being submissive to
men as she is more powerful than the male detective. Nevertheless this is reverted back to
traditional stereotypes and hegemonic ideologies of women being weak as she is the murderer, it
suggests that as a woman to gain power you need to be insane.

7. Sexuality
 Although we do not promote any sexuality, the relationship between the female and male
detective may suggest a sexual relationship and so stereotyping a traditional heterosexual
relationship, this is connoted by the detectives working late at night together and walking closely,
also by his concern for her safety home. On the other hand our target audience challenge
traditional stereotypes and so most likely will not read this.
 Discussing this we should take away that the relationship should be considered as this could be
another layer to our narrative and add to how severe her mental illness is.

8. Applying The Constructionist Theory
Representation: Women are unable to cope with pressure
Reality – Women’s hormones make them more susceptible to emotion.
Opinion of the producer – Women cannot cope with the pressure of work and drives them to a mental
breakdown in this case furthers to a mental illness.
Social Context – Women have more issues with stress and given less acknowledgement for their hard work
as promotions are harder to receive and so drives more work and more time to the career.
Representation – Women are not given the opportunity to become a detective due to males saturating
the industry.
Reality – The workplace gives equal opportunities to both genders
Opinion of the producer – Women have to result in drastic measures to be able to have the opportunity to
be promoted and have more power over men
Social Context – Men dominate the work world over women and women are treated completely different
in the work place to men.
The constructionist theory suggests representations in the media which are made up
of part of reality, opinion of the producer, social context and the audience (how they
will view it and question it

9. Ideologies
 The hegemonic ideology of respecting authority is challenged through the deconstruction of the
police force as the police are meant to be trusted and a form of justice and order to society but
the female subverts this by murdering other detectives.
 The ideology of men being oblivious through dangerous situations is promoted as the male
detective is carless and does not sense any danger, he cannot protect himself from anything
threatening.

10. Female Representations
David Guantlett’s empowered female:
We can apply this theory to the female detective (Johnson), she wears a trouser suit and controls her
sexuality through this by the only revealing skin of her face. Furthermore she has a higher position in the
hierarchy of the police force to the male detective, this makes the female more superior and in charge of
the male detective. Also through MCU the connotation of her being more powerful and dominant over
the male detective promotes the empowered female.
Judith Butler’s Gender Performance
The female detective subverts a stereotypical woman and follows this theory and causes gender trouble as
she wears masculine clothes which is a trouser suit and black coat. However this is then challenged by the
make-up she is wearing. The make-up also makes a further link back to Gauntlett’s idea as women can be
powerful and sexual by owning their sexuality in order to please themselves.

11. Institutions
Due to us being an independent film company this means we have more challenging representations due
to it not being influenced by stereotypes of todays society as a conglomerate would be.
We have challenged many stereotypes and representations which appeal to our sophisticated audience
but we also then later followed these which appealed to our secondary audience especially for gender as
the audience is the mass market and gender is male.
Looking back, we did not intentionally want to revert back to traditional stereotypes as this is not
appealing for the older sophisticated audience. Also we wanted to empower females and promote the
representation that they can be physically and mentally stronger than men.
Conglomerates usually promote more traditional representations due to them being dominant companies
and producing films which mainly target the mass market audience. This allows them to ‘inject’ them with
ideologies as they are a passive audience.