HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT PRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?By Holly Hermance

Representation

Media products, such as adverts and film, present social groups through the character’s age, ethnicity, disability,

gender, sexuality, and social class.

Our opening sequence focuses on the age and gender of the antagonist and the protagonist the most. We chose to

focus on this as it is one of the most commonly used representations of social groups in many media products.

Age

The protagonist in ‘Clockwork’ is older than the conventional hero in a stereotypical Sci-Fi/Horror film.

Therefore our media product represents the social group for the adult generation of 40-50 year olds. We can see this

through the costume which is laid back and more for comfort than for fashion.

Gender

We looked at many different films that included female older protagonists and how they portrayed them.

Sarah Connor – The Terminator 2Linda Hamilton plays the role of Sarah Connor. She portrays her as a very cold person.

Ellen Ripley – AlienSigourney Weaver plays the role of Ellen Ripley. She portrays her as dedicated leader.

President Laura Roslin – Battlestar GalacticaMary McDonnell plays the role of President Laura Roslin. She portrays her as a strong and graceful person.

Looking at the research we concluded that a female protagonist in sci-fi films is stereotypically a strong

independent person who is not afraid to say what she is feeling or thinking.

Our protagonist takes on some of these ideas as we make her look dominant and in charge as she walks down the

pathway. She is independent and looks like a strong minded character.

The protagonist being an older female presents the social group as older women.

Our media product presents the niche social group of female adults between the ages of 40-50 year olds as strong minded and individualistic. Focused on the important things in society

not the unnecessary things like fashion.