How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A social group I have identified within our opening sequence is young, teenagers, in particularly female. Katie is the main character within our opening sequence and plays the key character in representing this social group.

The character I have chosen to compare Katie Preece with is Casey Becker from the well-known horror ‘Scream’. Casey opens the film of Scream as does Katie within our opening and therefore I felt it were a good comparison to make, with Scream being quite an iconic film within the genre.

Looking at the appearance of both characters, there is similarities in the fact they are both blonde, pale skinned girls. There is a stereotype of those with blonde hair usually being less smart than others and therefore this may portray to the audience the vulnerability of the two characters in their situation. As well as this, a stereotype often used within horror/thriller films is that the victim is a white female and therefore both our film, and Scream, plays up to this social group stereotype. Katie and Casey are also similar in age, both being secondary (or high school) students. This once again shows that young females typically aged 16-18 are shown as victims within the horror genre. Differences between these two characters include the fact that Scream was made in 1996 and therefore there is a clear change in style of clothing to now in 2016. Casey is seen above wearing a simple jumper whereas Katie is in sports clothes. This is a key difference between the two characters as now in 2016, it is a lot more common for teenagers to go out and exercise by themselves or with friends whereas this has not always been a typical pastime of teenagers.

Katie’s role in the opening of Sinister Within is that she’s portrayed as a vulnerable victim and has clear interest from the antagonist of the film. This is also true with the role that Casey plays within Scream, despite only being part of the film a short while before being killed. Casey is victimised by an antagonist, who is not identified, and this also relates to the opening of Sinister Within because the antagonist, Alex, is not actually revealed much during the opening sequence of our film. A difference in the two character’s roles is that Casey directly interacts with the antagonist, as they speak over the phone and is eventually killed by this character. This differs from Katie in the opening of our film as although being clearly stalked by the antagonist, there is no direct contact or dialogue exchanged between the two characters.

On the other hand, it could be argued that within our opening sequence we challenge typical stereotypes of this particular social group (teenagers). Katie is out running in her free time, which would contrast with what a typical perception of a teenager would be, as they are often stained with a negative reputation. Taking an example of Skins, the E4 drama, the teenagers are constantly shown drinking, taking drugs and disregarding their education. By Katie being out running and pursuing a healthy lifestyle it actually shows teenagers in a positive light, and that they’re not just all thugs looking to party and cause trouble. This was an important part of teenage life to portray as the stereotype discussed above is often exaggerated to the point that the media it’s represented within loses its verisimilitude.