How does my media product represent particular social group?

In society there is certain ideology that reflects on how specific people have to behave, look and act. This is based on their gender, age, and ethnicity, sexual and social class. This ideology can be either negative or positive and it is often based on stereotypes. Richard Dyer supports this because he wrote about how there is an exaggerated version of the characteristics that is applied to everyone in that particular social group. Dyer also speaks about how the media has an increase in the stereotypes of the ‘less dominant ideologies’ which are gay men, non-white racial groups, working class and women hence why the white, middle class heterosexual men is the one that has the most power, having the least amount of worries and not being negatively stereotyped. For example: Black African people are seen as a danger to society due to the high level of criminal activities that they supposedly part take in but they can also be seen as family oriented. The media tries to represent the different types of people through the use of editing, mise en scene, camera work such as angles and the sound. They also try to reflect the life that they live and the dilemmas that they go through however in an actors storyline there is always reference back to their category; For example: A homosexual man might face daily dilemmas that every person faces but there would be a reference back to their sexuality. The man would be seen as someone who looks after his appearance (overly well groomed) and sometimes the daily struggles they face by being gay such as homophobic abuse.

Representing particular social group

Representation of Gender

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Caption: : This is a picture of each of the actors and actresses that took part of my movie. The top two pictures are the two characters and it is only those two people that take part in a short conversation.

Mise en scene- I believe that my movie does reflect the view that society is patriarchal. This is because the character that is the most powerful (in terms of having the power to go into people's heads)is a male. However it subverts the stereotype that the male gender is not in touch with their emotions because the aim of their meeting is to bring closure to the female. The male character presents himself in sophisticated way through the suit and tie. This reflects the authority that he has and the sophistication that he holds, He is also holding his hands on top of each other. This shows how he is listening to what Charlotte is saying and he is sat in a well mannered way. This goes with the stereotype of how males are more dominant and how they dress according to their occupation. The first female character is wearing a pink jumper and this reflects how 'girly' she is. This also goes with the stereotype of how girls are supposed to wear natural colours. She has her hands crossed and this reflects her vulnerability and how she is finding it difficult to open up to the male. Another example that shows how my movie reinforces stereotypes of gender is through the females being in touch of their emotions and not being able to have control. The female character tries to find ways into dealing with their grief and this is a stereotype of females wanting a way out and being dependant on opposite sex for help. Another way that it deals with the emotion of female is the other female character not being able to deal with the emotion (Hate) she has for her sister and therefore kills her.

Sound- when the male starts speaking there are no soundtrack but when the female starts speaking the music starts. This can reflect how in society females have to make sure that they get their voices heard because other things try to mute them but the male is the most dominant and doesn’t need to do much to get their voices heard, they just hold that masculinity ideology that gives them the most power.Editing- I also represented Gender through the use of sequential editing. This is because from the beginning of the extract the audience wouldn't think that she is a murder but when she gets hold of the knife its like her personality changed and turned into a totally different person but then after she's washed the knife she goes back into her normal life. It goes against the stereotypical way of how women are portrayed as angelic , weak because she is a ruthless murderer and goes back to the gendered role that society has for her. 

Representation of Gender

Camera Work- I used over the shoulder shots in the dialogue scene, I didn’t make the camera angles higher or lower when I was filming a particular character. This would mean that there are no gender that had more power. This would subvert the stereotype of females having less power and it represents how society is now becoming more equal gender wise.

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Caption: : I used over the shoulder shits for the dialogue..

Examples:

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Caption: : This is another example about the equality of gender, this is because hey both have the same frame size.

Theorists- Judith Butler

She put her ideas forward about gender differences in her book mamed 'Gender Trouble'. She is well known as a theorist of power, gender, sexuality and identity. She characterizes gender as the effect of continious acting and it would create a certain ideology tat society has to hold up. The ideologies would then need to be followed by society and if people dont follow them they are seen as deviant and they are punished for it. This is also known as the stereotypical gender roles where the woman is seen as someone who is weak, seeks for the male attention and stay at home whilst the male is seen as the most dominant one, helping the women that is in distress and just generally working and doing labourous jobs. . She adressed the term of gender performativity.

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Caption: : This is Judith Butler.

Comparing Butler's theory with my movie

I believe that my product challenges and conform to Butler’s theory about gender perfomativity. It challenges the her ideas because she speaks about how woman are seen as being weak however the main character (the killer) is obviously not weak because she has the bravery of killing someone and not caring about the act she has just done. This is shown in my movie because she kills her sister and doesn’t seem to care about it by eating Oreos after she done the act. However it can also be said that the weakness of the main character is her lack of mental control, she was unable to control her emotions and killed her sister. It also agrees with woman not knowing how to control their emotions. Overall my movie does challenge parts of her theory but it also agrees with it.

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Representation of Age

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In society there are labels that each person has depending on how old they are.. They all differ and in the media there is often a misrepresentation or an over exaggerated view on people.As I answered in one of the questions I wanted the target audience to relate to each different character and I think that I have achieved that because of the actor and the actresses I used were all above the age of 15 but at the same time I didn't make them too old. they were in the age bracket of 16-18., I believe that as a young person I have represented them well however one of the character is based on stereotypes that people hold over young people.

Caption: : The picture above shows the labels that society has over the different aged people.

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Representation of Age

One of the way that my movie subverts the stereotype of age is through Matthew Haddock or Simon Lunar. It is obvious that he is a young man but he is successful, he is dressed in a suit which shows sophistication and he is trying to help another person, This subverts the stereotype of young people behaving in a criminal like manner, being deviant and not willing to help other people in need. The killer is dressed in all black and this is an ideology that older people have towards young people (wearing all black, taking part in anti-social behaviour and overall being deviant and being a danger to society). But her socks are white and this can be conveyed as young people having this dark persona but under all that persona they have a small sense of consciousness and purity. Another way that it subverts stereotypes of young people not being able to take control of any situation that they are in is when Charlotte seeks for help and wanting to take control over her emotions. However it can also be said that this is not her taking control of the situation it’s just her finding an alternative and also being dependant on other people. Society also has a stereotype of young people not willing to take responsibility for their action and my movie does confirm with this to an extent. An example of how it agrees with this is that the killer doesn’t recognise the crime she’s done and she just ignores it by going back to her normal life. The movie also represents young people as being unaware to the situation and not knowing what to do so they seek to google for their answers. This is represented because when she kills her sister she didn’t know what to do so she goes on google to find an answer but she wasn’t able to do that so she reacts back with the aggression (shown when she shuts the laptop) and pushes it to the side. She then goes back to what ‘normal’ teenagers do and that is to eat and watch TV.

Caption: : This is a picture of each of the actors and actresses that took part of my movie. The top two pictures are the two characters and it is only those two people that take part in a short conversation.

Representation of Ethnicity & Authority

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Caption: : This picture comes from an animated family show named 'The Simpsons'. They often reflect the stereotypes that people hold over each ethnic group. For example Willie, the angry character at the bottom is from Scotland. He is presented as someone who is angry and swear a lot which reflects the stereotype of Scottish People.

My movie does reflect the stereotypes of different ethnic groups. Firstly the movie reflects the cultural hegemony because the character that hold the most authority which is Simon Lunar speaks with a strong British accent. This does reflect cultural hegemony because Britain is seen as a country that holds the most authorities and the rest have very little authority.It also reinforces that Black Africans are deviant and a danger to society, This is because there are two Black African characters but one of them turn to violence and killing She is also wearing dark clothes and this suggests not only the stereotype of young people but also ethnicity. This is because often a lot of Blacks are stereotyped to wear dark clothes. However it also subverts the stereotypes through Vanessa because she does pronunce things clearly and she presents herself in a sophistacted way. There is the stereotype that Black African young people use a close dialogue and that they cant pronounce things properly due to their accents. It is also stereotyped that Black Peeople wear hoodiess and dark clothing but once again Vanessa is wearing light colours

Theorists- Alvarado VS Deep Secrets

Alvarado’s theory states that there are four key themes in racial representations. There are exotic, dangerous, humorous and pitied. They can also be represented as exotic and a sexual symbol. They would be dressing in a way that can be seen as sexy and they would have oversexualised behaviour. The ethnic group that is mostly fits this stereotype are Latino Americans. Ethnic groups can also be displayed as a danger to society through their behaviour. This can be displayed through different ways, one way might be that they are involved in gangs and they are committing crimes, they might speak differently slang. This is the stereotype that society has for the ethnic minorities especially the black African group or the Middle Eastern and through the media the audience would generalise that behaviour for everyone in that group. They can be represented as humorous and it shown through their dialogue. The racial stereotype of being pitied are best explained when adverts or documentaries are displaying African children in poverty. It makes the audience feel guilty because they should be helping them and creates a feeling of pity.

I believe deep secrets represents the ethnic group of Black young people as being dangerous towards society. This confirms the stereotype that society has for them. This is through the way the main character behaves because she ruthlessly murders her sister and doesn’t care after it. This confirms the stereotype that society has for black young people as being part of violent acts it would also make the audience feel pity towards the younger sister.