Evaluation Question 2

How does your media Product represent particular social groups?

What is representation?

Representation is how something or someone is portrayed in a certain situation. The seven areas of representation are Gender, Age, Social Class, Sexuality, ability/disability, regional identity and Ethnicity. One of the key representations are stereotypes e.g. sixteen year olds are troublesome and moany or all asians own corner shops. Representations is the form of reality as it can be defined for one thing standing for another in the sense of representing it in a different view.

Social Groups

A social group are people sharing a similar social relation.

Age

Age is one of the social groups represented in the film opening of Obsession. A majority of physiological behaviour is linked to age in this case young adults are the main target. Age is also represented through the use of Mise en scene - Props, the main character wears a short navy dress with a ribbon on her hair she also has a bear with her. The use of these props automatically tells us that she is a young disturbed child. The fact that their is a white wall in the background connotes her innocence as well as her mental illness. 

Gender

Gender is also represented in the film,  the use of camera shots e.g. extreme close ups, wide shot, mid shot etc clearly shows that she is a girl. The use of make up juxtaposes with her mental illness as it portrays her femininity whereas the camera shots suggest that she is not 'normal' this is shown through her body language- Facial expressions.

Disability

Disability is another social group, in the film the use of Camera work portrays her mental state/ disability as their was flashing lights.The fact that the room was small and cramped portrays a mental asylum. Also the dark lighting also shows her mental state as she likes being in a dark room, whereas other kids may be afraid of the dark. 

The use of representation of social groups have been represented in a negative aspect as in a majority of phycological films have negative elements to portray a characters mental state. There are positive representation as men are victims in this film and the girl is the murderer which contradicts as men are usually portrayed as the killers and the children as innocent.