How does your media product represent particular groups?

1. How does your media product
represent particular social
groups?

2. Target Audience
Our thriller opening was mainly aimed at teenagers, even though thrillers
appeal to all we found through our artist research that teenagers were the
main group of people to watch them.
Our media product represents teenagers by:
• Having teenage actors represents social groups as you can connect with
the target audience easier
• Being on a phone is stereotypical of teenagers today
• Being on public transport is expected of teenagers because we can not
drive yet or can not afford cars
• Being in sixth form uniform represents social groups because again, we
can connect to the audience due to having a similar age
• Being boyfriend and girlfriend perhaps represents teenage social groups
because some have partners however are not married, this may
represent social groups
Our media product may not relate to some other social groups because:
• We were a stereotypical couple, we could have related to gay’s and
lesbians if we had a gay couple; thus relating to a different type of social
group
• We did not have a diverse range of races in our filming
• We were not of different ages, and so older people may find it harder to
relate (perhaps may find it hard to relate to being on the phone or
taking selfies)
• It was not obvious that we came from different backgrounds or class,
perhaps because we were all in sixth form clothing, apart from the
stalker, thus it may be hard for higher or lower classes to relate to the
characters.

3. Gender
Gender was represented in a stereotypical way in our opening to a thriller; through the man getting punched and the girl having taking the selfies; however it was
not conforming to gender stereotypes in a way that the boy was the person who was taken; where as usually it is the girl.
Firstly, we see the boy let the girl onto the train first which is a gentlemanly act and perhaps even an expected one of the boy. We also see that the girl is the one
to have the selfies on her phone, this is stereotypical because some may say it is rare for the boy to be taking pictures of them together all the time.
On the other hand, the girl gets off the train before we end on a cliff hanger of the boy being taken. This is not conventional, because as we see in Taken (2008)
and The Call (2013) the girl is usually the to get kidnapped; this is where I really felt strongly about making sure she was safe and not conforming to other thrillers.
I also thought that by having the boy being taken it would have a better affect to the rest of the movie.
Therefore, our opening to a thriller is quite conforming to the stereotype of genders however we also see a conflict to the stereotypes.