How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In this evaluation I will be discussing how my media product presents particular social groups. All sorts of media contains social groups to represent different people’s lifestyles and personalities. This can also help to connect with a certain target audience. Products often play on stereotypes of certain groups, even if this is not entirely intentional e.g 'helping as old person across the street' due to the stigma of being frail or weak – it’s not seen as a massive thing but has underlying connotations. Although some do challenge stereotypes to show a refreshing image of what a group is actually like, rather than the traits they have been labelled with. Such groups include age, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, gender and physical ability. In our film we have both challenged and met on certain social groups’ stereotypes.

It is hard to identify which social groups are involved within the opening of our film as neither of the characters are properly introduced for enigmatic reasons. But the first and easiest group I will discuss is age. There is a clear contrast in age between the two characters we see. One is young; a child - and one is older; a mother. I think in this regard we have stuck to the stereotypes to a certain extent, however it is mostly through positive representations. Being older, the mother is assumed to be caring and mature, and therefore clearly panicked that her child is missing, if she wasn’t so fussed and her expressions weren’t as large, we couldn’t be able to portray typical mothers fear. She can be seen as brave (as adults often are) as she runs through the dark forest without a thought and into the derelict building – her only agenda is to keep the younger person safe, assuming she needs protecting or can’t be independent, as adults often think about younger people.

The child can be represented by the music played as she as introduced. As the credits roll she walks up the stairs and creepy sound from a music box plays - a typical psychological horror sound effect and also something that relates to childhood. Her dialogue of 'mummy' at the end also represents are as a child, who typically wants/need to be cared for. She also seems very naive, because why else would she be wandering a haunted house on her own? Even the title connotes the innocent stereotype children have, and this explains how it was so easy for her to be taken/possessed in the first place - a negative representation of weakness and a feeble, malleable mind. On the other hand, the stereotype of children being inferior is somewhat challenged as she is the foremost character to be introduced and has an importance throughout. She is also never shown in a high angle shot unlike her mother with would connote vulnerability. The stigma that children are generally scared of many things is broken too as she is independently strolling around at night and it’s in fact her mother who is more frightened about the whole situation. Both characters clothes a fairly age typical, with the mothers being adult’s pyjamas and the child’s being pulled up socks

and little black shoes (and her childlike pyjamas). This all shows the clear difference in age between the two characters.

Gender is also a social group represented in our product, in two different ways. Both characters are female, showing that it is a female dominated film, which isn’t often the case for horrors. However, while the mother has be shown in the stereotypical light of having the maternal instinct, the girl has challenged female stereotypes. Stigmas like to present women as inferior, but also caring and motherly. The mother is just this - doing anything and going anywhere to look for her lost child. She is negatively represented by the previously noted high angle shot taken within the woods as she runs through the scene, connoting the danger she's in and how she's out of control of the situation – also showing her as flighty and emotion – perhaps due to the lack of safe ale presence that is normally around in these kind of horror films; meeting negative gender stereotypes. But as mentioned she is also positively represented as motherly. The child on the other hand challenges the stereotype of girls not being as particularly adventurous or brave as boys. She is - as explained before - out in the middle of nowhere on her own and must have done some wondering to get there, possessed or not. She isn’t scared or hysterical in any way as it is assumed girls are in horror films (especially children).

Overall, it is very hard to judge what social groups have been represented within our opening as neither characters are particularly explored or seen close up however there are some particular groups like age and gender that visually apply to our characters and are represented through them – both positively and negatively. They’re both a mixture of meeting and challenging stereotypes.