Question 2: "How does your media product represent particular social groups?"

Before I started to film 'False Impressions', I made sure I had the best idea about what the stereotypes of British policemen and detectives are, and I did this by researching police and crime films and TV Dramas, mainly more cinematic TV. I looked mainly at the iconography used to represent them in order for the audience to be completely aware of this stereotypical representation.

The detectives are represented as being very middle-class, and this is shown through their clothing and through their speech codes. For example, Alex Cross addresses John Walker as 'Sir' and they shake hands, both of which are a formal way of greeting each other.

As you can see below, John Walker is dressed very formally, even though he is at the scene of a murder and is about to investigate a dead body, and this is a representation of middle-class police as being very formal and not very 'hands-on' when it comes to investigating the actual crime scene.

As previously mentioned, I studied cinematic TV aswell as films, and Sherlock Holmes is represented in a similar way to the detectives in 'False Impressions'. They both turn up to the crime scene very smartly dressed and both use more elaborate speech codes than those around them, and this is a representation of the middle-class.

Just like in Sherlock, James Bond is always exceptionally dressed for such a 'hands-on' job. He is pictures below in the underground of London, yet he is dressed in a very expensive suit which is later ruined in a fight. Even though he gets a lot more involved than the other detectives, he is shown as a representation of the middle-class.

After a deep analysis of both British and American films and TV dramas, I have noticed that this representation of different social classes only occurs in British films, and only very slightly in American films. This could be because there is a very blurred line between American social classes, whereas British classes are very distinct.