The document discusses how social realism films typically represent the working class social group through stereotypes. It provides the example of the TV series "Youngers" which portrays working class teenagers living on estates with limited education opportunities. The document then discusses how the media product aims to clearly represent the young female protagonist as working class through elements like her clothing, the lit street setting, and her turning to violence and drugs, conforming to working class stereotypes. It focuses on teenagers as a social group by casting the main character as a 16-year-old to increase believability and relate to the target audience of 15-18 year olds.

1. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

2. SOCIAL REALISM FILMS
In general, social realism films focus on the working class social
group. The one or two main characters will fit this role by conforming
to the stereotype, creating the clear image of what the director wants
an audience to see. The setting and location will also conform to the
stereotypically view of the working class, for example council estates.
A recent social realism series, aimed at teenagers, ‘Youngers’ is a
very good example of representing the working class, who live on
estates and don’t try hard in education, but try to succeed in
industries like music, sports or vocational courses. However, this is
all conforming to a stereotype and if the director decided to have the
same storyline but with a different class or a different type of person
maybe it wouldn’t work or maybe the audience would not recognise it
as being believable.

3. OUR MEDIA PRODUCT
In our media product we wanted the representation of the young girl
to be clear, almost immediately. With the jump cuts to the car the
audience can see glimpses of the girls personality and what she may
be like and her location. Furthermore, the surroundings of well lit
streets at night also suggest a working class background, the places
need to be lit to avoid danger. To follow the codes and conventions
of a social realism film we followed the working class stereotype with
our main protagonist dressed in a track suit and a hooded coat, both
of which were dark and menacing. Also taking on board what the
setting and location should be like to be fitting to this stereotype.

4. OUR MEDIA PRODUCT
We also wanted to look at the main protagonists age as a social group.
As our target audience is 15-18 we wanted our cast to be this age
also, so there is a sense of relation to the protagonist. Our main
character, Zoe, was cast as a 16 year old working class girl living in
London. At this age teenagers can still be manipulated and peer
pressured into doing things, so casting at this age was fitting to our
storyline of the pressures into drugs. However, being at this age and
doing hard drugs can have such a damaging effect like our character
becoming schizophrenic. Again this is fitting to our film conforming to the
working class stereotype, because our protagonist turns to violence
which is common in gang culture in working class areas. The age of
character again ensures the believability as teenagers will, in some
cases, follow demands and pressure just to fit in.

5. OUR MEDIA PRODUCT
In conclusion our media product conforms to the stereotypes of the
working class and teenagers social groups. We have decided to this
because it is clear to the audience what the main protagonist is
meant to be like. Furthermore, it means that our target audience (15-
18 year olds) will be able to relate the character/s through own
experience or from being stereotyped themselves or simply because
they know of these stereotypes.