Evaluation task 2; How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We also tried to emphasise how much ‘next generation’ technology that teenagers use and within the first scene it is made Our product represents several social groups in today’s society. One of the main social groups represented is the teenage demographic consisting of ages 13-19. During our opening the main protagonist can be seen to be representing certain stereotypes associated with today’s youth. In the opening the character ‘Rakim’ can be seen playing a violent video game known as ‘Grand Theft Auto’ which has been criticised for its violent nature and explicit content. We believe that this suggests that the youth of today are constantly being exposed to violence in and around them every day and in turn is leading to a much more dangerous society e obvious to the audience that the character has a large television, game consoles and a high tech phone. This suggests that teenagers have almost unlimited use of technology and have almost become unattached to society as a whole choosing to stay in their own home rather than socialising outside, signalling that times are changing, almost as if today’s teenagers are becoming anti-social. Regarding Rakim’s costume we believed it was best if we captured the stereotype that urban youths are most likely to be dressed in tracksuits and dark clothing. We did this in order to reinforce common stereotypes for our audience before they had an opportunity to form their own, because as the opening carries on the audience are made aware of Rakim’s true character, leading to our audience having to reconsider their own stereotypes, in all suggesting a misrepresentation of urban youths in our society.

We believe that our thriller opening addresses the issue of peer pressure among teenagers today, as in one particular scene where Rakim and Ahmed are conversing it is apparent that Rakim is having second thoughts about carrying out the favour that Ahmed asked of which leads to Ahmed pressuring regarding a possible payment, it is also apparent that Rakim is slightly afraid of Ahmed. This scene suggests that among teenagers there is a social issue of peer pressure and fear of other opinions regarding their own character. As a result this leads to many teenagers being forced into situations that they shouldn't be involved in; often leading to issues which could have been avoided. We believe that this shows that our youth have self-confidence issues which lead to them being unable to stand up for themselves in certain situations, such as the issue that Rakim encountered in London’s Burning.
Regarding social groups we tried to make sure that the costumes we used were able to portray the image we were trying to put across to our audience. Both Ahmed and Saeed were dressed in suits. We wanted this to connote that the two characters were both of great wealth and intelligence, representing the upper class and almost elite like in wealth. It is quite obvious from the opening that both Saeed and Ahmed command some sort of power over Rakim who is not as fiscally secure as the other two, with Ahmed even offering him money to do a job for him with Rakim willing to do it. We wanted this to denote that the upper class/ the 1% have greater influence in society today rather than the general public. This is evident as Ahmed and Saeed were able to do their bidding, suggesting that the upper class profit from the work that the middle and lower class do We believed idiolect to be a pivotal part of our thriller opening. The various use of slang helped us to represent and cater to a much younger and urban audience. Throughout the opening it is apparent that all characters use type of urban slang as the following video is likely to identify.