Q2

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.