Evaluation question 2

Evaluation question 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller film opening represents particular social group in a subtle way. The main character in the film is Ally Quinn, who is a nineteen-year-old teenager. Our target audience age is 15-24, and our main character represents a member of our target audience. Our film is also probably appealing to around 60% female and around 40% male. The fact that our main character is female also helps to attract this audience. We are representing a middle class, comfortable group of young people, and the person who has committed the crime (Jasper Thomas) is also from this target audience.

It could be said that our media product presents teenagers or adolescents in a way that fits in with the stereotype of the idea that street crime and crime in general is mostly committed by men. However, we want the audience to be unsure as to whether Jasper Thomas has actually committed the rape or if he has just been falsely accused of committing a rape. Also, it fits in with the stereotype that it is usually younger men or teenagers that commit street crime.

Ally Quinn is a young, British, wealthy girl. If Ally turned out to be innocent and simply be the victim of a rape, the social group of young girls would represented in a rather stereotypical way in the idea that they are vulnerable, and targeted by rape and other crimes. However, if Ally turned out to be guilty of making up the fact that she had been raped by Jasper, she would portray the social group of young girls in a different way, and imply that they are prone to attention seeking and making up events or exaggerating events to make themselves seem like the innocent person in the situation.

If Jasper were to be innocent, his social group would be being presented totally differently to if he was guilty. It would make the group of young British wealthy males seem less threatening and more respectable and fair. This would go against many stereotypes of young males being irrespective of the law and committing crimes on innocent people. It would also go against or flip the stereotype of men generally targeting women.

Overall, our media product represents youth as prone to committing crime whilst also becoming the victims of it. However, we have deliberately left the question of whether Ally Quinn or Jasper Thomas is the guilty person in the scenario, which would determine whether the film went with the stereotype and represented males as more prone to committing crime or going against the stereotype, and having a female law breaker.