The document analyzes the representation of social groups in a media product's opening sequence featuring a single character. The character is described as: - Caucasian female, 17 years old - Lower class due to mental illness leaving her unemployed and unable to care for herself - Shown as weak, lonely, scared, and vulnerable without friends or support The document evaluates how the character's attributes relate to stereotypes around gender, age, social class, and ethnicity. It suggests the character conforms to stereotypes of females as needing help and younger people as innocent but vulnerable.

1. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
EVALUATION QUESTION 2
For our opening sequence we only have one character shown who has physiological problems.
The character covers the representation of age, ethnicity and gender. Also, looking into the
social class theory.

2. • Caucasian
• Female
• Young – 17 years old
• Lower class
• Mental illness
The protagonist seems to be running away from someone/something; however the audience do not see a
positive portrayal of the protagonist due to physiological illness.
Shown weak, lonely, scared and vulnerable.
CHARACTER PROFILE

3. A – Upper Middle Class- Well paid professionals e.g. doctors and solicitors.
B – Middle Class- Fairly well paid professionals e.g. teachers or office managers.
C1 – Lower Middle Class- ‘White collar’ workers e.g. office workers and nurses.
C2 – Skilled Working Class- ‘Blue collar’ workers e.g. electricians and plumbers.
D – Working Class- Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers e.g. Shop assistants, factory line workers and rubbish collectors .
E – Unemployed/receiving benefits e.g. pensioners, students and those unemployed.
My character from my media product would belong to the social class ‘E’. This is because the character will
clearly be unemployed because she is very mentally ill, not capable of having a steady job. Also throughout the
opening sequence you cant see the character eating any high class food or wearing any high class clothes. The
characters age would prove that she should be at school, or in some form of education. However, she is
actually on her own all the time, so she clearly doesn’t go to school and have lots of friends.
From the character profile, you can tell that the protagonist has mental issues, which clearly shows that she is
from a lower class. As she is unable to do ordinary things like a normal human being, she is classed as status E
in the pyramid which is underclass. In the opening sequence the character is dressed in poor quality clothes
and trapped in a hospital ward which links back to her social class status.
SOCIAL CLASS?

4. I think that in some ways my media product represents the character as a countertype. The reasoning for this
is because when thinking of a stereotypical girl you would expect her to be blonde, wearing pink and very
ditsy. This for my media product is defiantly not the case.
On the other hand the despite the character being a countertype I also don’t feel that she is represented very
positively. This would make the character regressive. This is because being represented as crazy isn't what
people would want for themselves.
COUNTERTYPE?

5. The use of a female character in our opening sequence is to show that she is lonely and weak stereotypically
showing that she needs saving by a male character. Through the opening sequence we don’t show the
personality of the character, however from what is shown there is an indication that she is running away from
fear and does not have the power to overcome the fear.
The fact that me as the character for the opening sequence is a girl may suggest that I girls are a part of a
lower social group. This is because you wouldn’t naturally expect someone of high class and status to be
mentally ill running about on her own. You would likely expect her to be with someone to protect her, with
friends. This means that my media product can effect the representation of females and there social group.
Stating perhaps they don’t belong in a higher social group.
We have shown a part in the opening sequence which clearly connotes a stereotype of a female, as she has
written on her hand ‘help me’, indicating that she is lonely and scared. Most female characters are shown as
the second lead in a movie as male actors are shown more powerful and responsible. However, by using the
female character as the lead in our opening sequence we are challenging those movies that mostly show males
as the lead and trying to gain more female viewership.
GENDER

6. My media product can also effect the representation of age. The character is in her teens, she is running outside alone, clearly
she is very unstable. Ripped clothes, and messy hair would suggest again that she is of a lower social class. This could give off
the stereotypical.
Age is shown stereotypically in our character, as she is fairly young and most age group are associated with being innocent a nd
vulnerable. They are shown in danger and weak in the real world and we have shown this through the character in our opening
sequence.
The target audience is around the similar age as our character, this would make it easier for the audience to understand what we
are trying to portray. Also, the genre of our opening sequence is based on ‘horror’ so from the research of BBFC ratings the
best suitable target audience for this particular genre is ages from 15 and above.
AGE

7. Ethnicity is also represented in my media product. As a Caucasian character this means that the low class
representation could be depicting Caucasians in the lower class region. It is common for people to think that
mainly white people are at risk of mental issues. However, although your ethnicity does not change your
mental health, my media product does reinforce that a Caucasian person again has a metal illness, This gives
the character again a lower social class of being different and having something wrong with her.
Although, because the protagonist is Caucasian, which sets a clear target audience for our opening sequence to
be white because there is only one character shown. Also, the protagonist does not speak at all which makes
the audience eager to find out whether she is British or American.
ETHNICITY