Points of discussion to write up

Past representations summary

1940s
'gradually I learned to switch off'
New youth language of swing
Important not to look like faithful German younglets - own suits
Boys/ girls forbidden to mix, swing shows raided by police (German)
"We wanted to tell all these dumb bastards that we were different, that was all" (Tommie Scheel)
Education was not a priority
Europe was following in Americas footsteps
"We thought democracy was something worth fighting for"
"Youth of Britain is set to play their part in shaping the future"
"Why would young people fight for democracy when we are just gonna be treated like second class citizens"
"Latch key kids" - kids have to let themselves in, parents at work
Drugs, mugging, violence, criminal records, girls get attention from boys
New club: teen canteen - 6/7 names for youth clubs - start of slang

1950s
washing machine, TV
'change was in the air in the 1950s'
after all their progress in war, women were firmly pushed back into homes
British rock and roll
USA: Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, James Dean
Britain: Cliff Richard
Coffee bar
Select groups of people - small majorities (until just after 50s)

1960s
'the summer of love'
young people had a say and it got heard
music, fashion, sex
radio 1 - The Beatles
example text for 60s: QUADROPHENIA - two subcultures: normal vs gang (party/fighting)

1970s
David Bowie
anarchy vs monarchy
Sid Vicious - Queen/ Sex Pistols

1980s
racial tensions - riots (Brixton)
miners strikes, privitisation
lots of money in city quickly
aids awareness, gay acceptance
Micheal Jackson, Madonna, Wham, U2, Band Aid (MTV launches)

1990s
Nirvana, Oassis vs Blur - mushy sounds and electronic keyboards
Tony Blair
Cool Britannia
'girl power' - Spice Girls
no longer take 5 hours to get ready, roll out of bed and play music
stereotyping teenagers on TV (Harry Enfield as Kevin)

2000s
Ali G
Lauren Cooper by Catherine Tate
Little Britiain
negative representation of teenagers on TV programmes (positive representation of Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging)
Titanic/ Harry Potter, Slumdog Millionaire
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing
Micheal Jackson dies
Advances in technology - mobile phone, mp3, social media

Similarities of today:

Drugs, mugging, violence, criminal records, girls get attention from boys

Washing machine, TV

Music, fashion, sex

Racial tensions

Aids awareness and gay acceptance

Negative representation of teenagers on TV programmes

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter

Awareness in technology 

Differences of today:
Boys/girls forbidden to mix 

Education was not a priority 

Women have to stay at home

Young people have a say and it gets heard

No longer took 5 hours to get ready, roll out of bed and play music - now airbrushed and make up artists

London riots

REPRESENTATION OF YOUTH how are young people represented?

Extreme negativity. Headlines from newspapers reporting at the time (2011) read: 

'Kids take on cops in £100m rampage' (The Sun)

'Rioters aged 7' (The Sun)

'Rule of the mob' (Telegraph)

'Flaming morons' (Daily Express)

'Yob rule' (Little Independent)

'Sweep scum off our streets' (Daily Express)

'You're a disgrace to your country' (Daily Mail on olympic girl)

'Our sick society' (Daily Telegraph)
Generalise all of the youth participants in the London riots to all youth living in London 

KEY POINTS significance of representation

Newspapers are read by a large audience readership, majority are stereotypically adults. Adults will then see these negative headlines of the youth and agree with them and therefore stereotype all youth as being like this

THEORY theorists to discuss

Henry A Giroux - youth reflects adult concerns (adult concerns here is the London riots) - negative stories sell (there are no positives of the London riots except the mass helping to clean up after which mainly focused on adults ^) - media representation of youth does not reflect reality of youth identity (reality is the youth are not all like the youth participating in the London riots, what about the good educated kids who kiss their mum good night and help around the house?) - serves the purpose of the middle class adults who produce them (middle class adults produce papers such as The Sun e.g. Rupert Murdoch)  

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES link discussion to articles we looked at

This can be linked to Ill Manors which was made in 2012 (one year after the London Riots) and was Ben Drew's interpretation of how the youth are represented in the media in a violent way

'Ill Manors' music video

REPRESENTATION OF YOUTH how are young people represented?

As chavs (council house and violent) - tracksuits and hoodies (hoodie horror, can be linked to 'Tight Jeans' here). Scarves to cover their faces, much like in the newspapers article from the London Riots where the picture of the teenager walking out of the fire with his face covered went viral. Overall, a very negative representation

KEY POINTS significance of representation

The significance of this representation was to follow on from the London Riots and was Plan B (Ben Drew's) direct interpretation of how he thinks the youth is shown in the media (references to politics e.g. David Cameron) 

THEORY theorists to discuss

Stuart Hall - dominant message: the youth are represented negatively in the media, negotiated message: this cannot be generalised to all youth, oppositional message: this is an unfair representation 

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES link discussion to articles we looked at

This can be referenced to 'Tight Jeans' where the idea of the 'hoodie horror' Ben Drew uses in Ill Manors comes through. In Tight Jeans three black guys are sitting on the wall and are made to look like they are going to mug somebody when in actual fact they just discuss the clothes the passersby are wearing - Stuart Hall theorist - dominant vs negotiated vs oppositional messages - what we see isn't always interpreted the same through all ages eyes e.g. youth think differently to adults 

Interpretation of 'In Real Life'

The Guardian review:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/22/in-real-life-film-review-kermode

My review:

This documentary was very over exaggerated. Yes it did highlight some of the very important dangers of the internet and social networking sites but all of the cases picked were very extreme and generalised all links of youth and the internet to be negative which they are not. In class we have discussed some of the pros and cons of the internet which is fair yet no pros were included in this documentary made. Of course sympathy needs to be given to the extreme case of suicide, happiness can be felt for the teenager who met his skype boyfriend in real life and scared-ness can be experienced when hearing about the girl who had sex with multiple men to retrieve her phone back but these are not everyday cases. Yes they happen and yes it is awful but you cannot generalise this to all social networking and internet usage for youths like the documentary was unintentionally trying to do. It was informative and interesting but at the same time unrealistic. 

Other points of discussion to write up: 

How are teenagers and young people in the media portrayed?

Negatively, which can be supported by texts such as In Real Life, Ill Manors, Tight Jeans and the London Riots. 

Who constructs these representations?

Middle class adults who produce them (reference to Henry A Giroux) 

How do the representations influence young people's identity?

All youth become generalised which is not a nice thing. Are we all rioters and addicted to gaming and our phones and cyberbulliers? No. We lose our own identity and become a collective group labelled by the media and middle class adults. 

How do these representations affect adults' opinions of teenagers?

They believe them. And the youth cannot defend themselves. Example: Newspapers 6,500 stories of young people: half crime, 1 in 10 allowed voice of young person, 600 references to 'yob', 250 to 'thug,' 'angel' and 'model student' but only used if young person died, murdered or in accident.

Is it possible for teens and adults to interpret representations of youth differently?

Definitely, the youth will interpret the representation of youth as unfair and inaccurate and adults will interpret representations of youth as fair and accurate. Unfortunately, I think this can only be blamed on one thing - the media.