Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Will Burden

The two protagonists in our media

production are all white, middle class

male teenagers.

They on the whole present quite residual ideologies. This is because white, middle class kids wouldn’t usually be expected to be partaking in criminal activity such as breaking and entering.

Nevertheless, on the contrary, white

middle class teenagers are the

predominant victims within the

horror genre.

Through the use of handi-cam, we present much of the opening sequence through the POV of the protagonists. Through dialogue we distinguished that one of the characters was more afraid of the surroundings than the other.

Insidious uses some shots like the tracking shot

in the opening to create a feeling of isolation and

desertion in the opening sequence. We emulated

something like this so that then the characters

would hopefully be presented to feel the same

fear towards the house as the audience.

The other characters within the opening sequence are the two antagonists. They consist of a young mother along with her baby ‘Betsy’.

We are unaware of the mother’s class but

we do know she is a white female, who

has some psychological issues due to

being beaten in her previous relationship.

This becomes apparent from the flashbacks that are shown. They fit a dominant ideology for ghosts. Haunting somewhere and feeling hatred towards the living world.

Nevertheless, having a baby as a

ghost is quite unconventional and is

presents quite an emergent ideology

for the horror genre.