How does your media product represent particular social groups?

By Bethlehem

Target Audience

• Our media product is mainly aimed at young adults aged 15 to 24 year olds.

• We have mainly aimed it at youths in the UK however could be shown worldwide as it is an international issue.

Why did we pick them?• As crime rate is increasing rapidly every year, we want to

make the young adults aware of the real life issues that are happening. Some people may feel that it only happens in movies and this makes us blind to the fact that males can be the victims to. As a teenager myself, I thought that stories like these were myths however recently they have been constant stories about males dying because they trusted the wrong person.

• Youths between the ages of 15-24 are more likely to be involved in crimes and incidents like this because of their surroundings.

Stereotypes

• The usual stereotype for gang/ gang members:- Black- Youth (16-20)- Usually 3+ members• Although we stuck to this stereotype in our movie, it is

a known opinion that people automatically assume that a young black person is involved in a gang or seen as dangerous. Black people are 18 times more likely to be stopped by police than any other ethnic group.

Examples of Social Groups;

• Attack the Blocks:In Attack the Blocks, youths are presented in a violent and aggressive way. Their life on the streets is portrayed in a way that would make the general public scared of them. For example, in one scene a female passer-by was walking casually until she saw a group of boys and crossed the road to avoid them. This film initially presents youths as monsters then replaces them with actual monsters. They have a territorial war with the monsters which may represent the ‘postcode wars’ that teenagers have.

• Top Boy• Top Boy is a British television drama show. It is set in Hackney, East London, the

series is about a group of teenagers involved with dealing drugs and street gang. The majority of the characters in Top Boy are black youths between the ages 16-24 however there are a couple of other ethnics. Like Attack the Blocks, Top Boy presents British teenagers in a negative and aggressive way. Watching shows like this gives the public the wrong impression on young people.