AS Media Evaluation Question 2

Representation can be defined in various ways, for example you can represent something or someone, or you can get a representation of someone by observing what they do. Representation differ according to personal point of views. Within all media products something or someone is always represented even if there's no intention for this. There are many areas of representation such as gender, age, social class, sexuality, ability/disability, regional identity and ethnicity. These areas can all be represented through different ways within a media product.

The plot of our thriller has clearly indicated which social groups are being represented. The thriller sees two youths on the run possibly in danger or trouble, thus, it's clear the social group being represented in our thriller is youths. Youths are known as young people in their teenage years. This social group relates back to a few areas of representation we looked at in media lessons such as age, class, ethnicity and gender.

The ways the youths are represented support various stereotypes in today's society. For example, young boy are seen as trouble, danger surrounded and up to no good. This stereotype s supported in the opening of our thriller as for example you can see the two boys are tied up and on the run. This supports the stereotype view of young people being up to no good. Another common controversial stereotype which is represented in the thriller relates to the ethnicity representation area. The two boys in the clip are both asian. From this we understand that they may be working class as it's common for only the white dominant people to be part of the upper middle class. The fact these two asian boys are on the run supports the stereotype that coloured people some times are targeted more often than white people. It also represents the fact that asian people are often victimized.

The micro elements of media have influenced how the youths are represented. For example, for a majority of the time the pair are shot from high angles indicating less power which represents that youths are powerless in society. The mise en scene such as the pair tied to trees in belts represents the stereotype that young boys are targets and usually creating danger or being apart of it.

The social group of youths have been represented in a negative aspect in our thriller as the action has supported negative stereotypes of youths. These stereotype are for example:

• Young boys are always in trouble
• Young boys are targets for others

This negative representation is common in real media, for example youths are negatively represented in films such as my brother the devil, adulthood and kidulthood. However there are many shows within real media which challenge this representation such as shows such as Eatenders as this shows how although teens are commonly in trouble, this isn't always the case, as they can be helpful normal individuals too.

The images above, created from photobucket, show how the social group of youths are being represented. We see a youth on the run, 2 youths tied to a tree and one knocked out on the floor. This is a negative representation as it supports the stereotype that teenagers are trouble makers and are always up to no good.