2. How does your media product represent particular social group?

Our opening sequence introduces a protagonist who is a shopping addict and she dreams about shopping from very expensive shops where in reality she is in debt due to her shopping addiction. However it is not clear to the audience that’s she’s having a dream until the blackout. We picked a very pretty female character who is a young adult to fit in with the story line. We chose a female character because in society it’s stereotyped that women like to shop more than men and usually shopping is seen as a woman’s hobby.

The film represents the social group of young females because usually they are associated with a fashion obsession as well as being clueless about money as we have seen in many films like ‘Confession of A Shopaholic’ and ‘Sex And The City.’ Men are often seen as the more practical and careful with money whilst women are more impulsive with money and shopping. We also see that in the media such as magazines shopping is always linked to women. According to a survey, women aged between 14-45 think about shopping every 60 seconds.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1025582/Women-think-shopping-men-think-sex.html

This shows that younger women are more interested in shopping and that’s why we chose a young female character. Our opening sequence also highlights consumption and materialism in a time when many people are facing financial struggles which is relevant now due to the recession.

The character is dressed up with trendy clothes, high heel boots, hair and makeup also done which implies that she cares a lot about her appearance which is linked to why she’s a shopping addict. In this film the protagonist is from a white background that’s because she’s from Hollywood and usually in films like that the main character is more likely to be presented as a “dumb blond”. These kinds of films are usually set in America. She’s also from the middle class as we assume that she would need the money to buy that amount of shopping even though we know she’s currently in debt but that’s due to her shopping addiction.