EVALUATION QUESTION 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Casual

comfortable

clothing

Loose fitting

jeans

Grey zip up

jacket

Button

up

denim

shirt

Wrist band

Leather

boots

Loose fitting

jacket/coat

Plain blue t-

shirt

Loose fitting

jeans

Material

shoes

Both have wavy

hair that flops to

the side

Both main

characters

Both

outcasts in

society

Similarities:

I decided to compare the main character ‘Tony‘ to the main character ‘John Smith’ in the film ‘I am number four’. This film follows ‘John Smith’, an alien running from another alien race as he is the next in line to be killed.

Similarities:

◦ Tony and John are both running away from the authorities, although they are not in the same social group as ‘John Smith’ is the last of his kind, where as the main character in my film is an outcast from society.

◦ They both try to hide their identity and this is shown as they wear dull colours that don’t attract attention to themselves, which allows them to blend in with the rest of society.

◦ They are the main characters in both films and are of similar build and height.

Differences:

Differences:

◦ They have different hair colours

◦ Their characters have different objectives

◦ Although they are of a similar age, I would expect the two characters to be in

separate friendship groups.

◦ They both have different goals they need to achieve for example ‘Tony's’

objective is to run away from the government as he has done something

wrong, where as John Smiths objective is to run away for his survival

Both wearing

suitsBoth

wearing

formal

clothing.

Computers and

cabinets in the

background

Formal

clothing

(blazers)

Different

genders

More

important

status in the

films

Have

different

objectives

Similarities:

I decided to compare the screenshot of the government to a

screenshot from the film ‘divergent’. The film Divergent is set in the

future where their society is divided into five sections. It follows the

main character as they run to hide their status and class of society.

Similarities:

◦ They are both wearing formal blazers and suits that symbolises the

higher status/class of their characters.

◦ Have higher status in the films.

◦ Are working to better the country

Differences:

Differences:

◦ They are different genders and this could cause some controversy

as some people could argue that males have more dominance

rather than women, but some people could argue that having

women in charge is more modern as there is equality in the

workplace.

◦ Even though my film is in the sci-fi genre, the ‘divergent’

screenshot looks more futuristic as everything has a more clinical

feel.

Barthes:The theory of semiotics

Barthes’ theory of semiotics focuses on the social and cultural

meaning of signs and codes. Signs consist of an image, a word

and many objects.

The meaning of signs depends on the relationships between the

signifier (the image, word, object), the signified (the implied

meaning), and the referent (what the image, word, object, or

practice refers to).

For example: A yellow yield sign is a signifier that conveys the

meaning — the signified, to yield to other cars. The referent is the

actions referred to, in this case, yielding to other cars. People learn

that the colours red and green as signifiers have certain signified

meanings — stop and go, with the referent being stopping and

starting a car on the street based on a set of cultural codes and

conventions.

Coding and decoding

◦ The Encoding/decoding model of communication was developed by Stuart Hall in 1973.

◦ Hall’s idea is that Encoding/decoding is the translation of a message that is easily understood. When you decode a message, you are translating the meaning of the message into terms you are able to easily understand. Decoding has both verbal and non-verbal forms through communication.

◦ Decoding non-verbal language would be observing a persons body language. One example of this would be widening your eyes to try and hide a meaning between two people.

◦ Decoding is understanding what someone already knows, based on the information given throughout the message being received. Decoding is the process of obtaining, absorbing, understanding, and sometimes using the information that was given throughout a verbal or non-verbal message.

Social groups:

Other social groups that I have not discussed is:

◦ The elderly

◦ Different ethnicities

◦ Young teenagers

These groups have different personal identities and behave

differently in different social groups, which allows the director and

writers to not only use stereotypes but to break them as well.