Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group that our media product represents is the middle class. The characters Robert and Sarah are clearly fairly well off as they live in a fairly nice house in a fairly nice area considering there age. Our media product also represents both genders through Sarah who is clearly a young professional and Jonathan and Robert represent males.

The men in our product are shown to be brutish, particularly Jonathan, as he is violently beating Robert. This does not show men in a good light compared to films of the 1990s that show men as clever and resourceful compared to women. In our product it is clear that Sarah is the protagonist and Jonathan is the antagonist. This may be considered to go against social stereotypes. Sarah is shown to be the protagonist as there are scenes of her where she’s not really doing much suggesting she is integral to the story. Men are also shown the be corrupt and in this case treacherous as it is made clear at the end of the sequence that Jonathan and Robert were clearly friends before Jonathan betrayed him.

Our media product does not necessarily create realism as the couple are clearly very young to be living in the house that do. In the real world they would be more likely to be living in an apartment.

Sarah portrays the image of a young professional effectively. She is wearing clothes that one would expect of a young professional and in some ways acts as a young professional would. In the taxi she is clearly stressed and seems relieved to be out of the office and back at home, almost instantly turning the kettle on.

Both Jonathan and Robert portray images of good and evil.  Jonathan wears dark clothes and has dark hair and pale gaunt features. These are often stereotypical features of an antagonist whereas Robert has blond hair and less gaunt features, although he is quite pale. Robert does not have all the qualities that constitute to a stereotypical protagonist but he has the qualities that make him a benevolent character. He also struggles to fight back against Jonathan possibly because he is weaker than him but it could be because he cannot hurt the man he previously considered his friend.

We believe that these social groups will attract our target audience of 15- 25 years olds as they are of similar demographics that may help the audience relate to them.

TS