To what extent was a negative view of British youth constructed by the media coverage of the summer 2011 riots?

 

 

The London riots of 2011 constructed a negative view of the majority of British youths due to the mediation of TV, print and radio on the situation. This negative representation of youths created by the various media forms would create a stereotypical view of youths across Britain being rebellious and voilent, however the question raised was that not all of the British youths were to follow these prosthetic accusations, meaning that the British media had falsely constructed a negative on the majoiry of youths.

 

Below are some examples of different media forms in which portrays British youths negatively.  

 

This article written by the Daily Mail highlights how this certain fighter in the riots thought he was a 'soldier'. This representation of the fighter shows how they embraced the voilence of the riots and that the fighers felt like more well respective soldiers. An interpretation of this article from an older reader would feel that the youths who are fighting in the riots feel that they can act above the law, thus representating that British youths think they can act however they wish.

 

 

 

 

 

Structure for exam question

Analyse the impact of media representation on the collective identity of British youth in the 1960s.

Intro
-1960's how society was about to change due to the rise of collective identity.
-Definition of collective identity
- Why youths seem to be attracted by subcultures

First para
- The two common subcultures within the 1960's
- Mods vs Rockers, analyse their difference, these differences were effected by the media.

Second para
- How the subcultures were represented. Print/Movies
- The impact it had on consumers

Third para
- The power of print media at the time (main way of news consumption, bias but believed)
- The use of headlines to highlight the mods and rockers behavior - its effects
- Language in the headline - 'wild ones'

Fourth para
-  The comparisons between Quadrophenia and The Young Ones
- How mods/rockers were stereotyped
- The young ones - how youths were represented
- how consumers would react

Conclusion
- explain the media representation of british youths was negative because of the use of media products.

1960's Youth Representation: A Different Representation

Let's go back in time to 1961, just 3 years before the media in Britain represented its youth as being violence driven hooligans who were a threat to the very fabric of society.

1961 saw the release of the film 'The Young Ones' starring, amongst others, Cliff Richard.

The story is about the youth club member and aspiring singer Nicky (Cliff Richard)  and his friends, who try to save their club in western London from the unscrupulous millionaire property developer Hamilton Black, who plans to tear it down to make room for a large office block. 

The members decide to put on a show to raise the money needed to buy a lease renewal. The twist in the story is that Nicky in reality is Hamilton Black's son, something he keeps keeps secret from his friends until some of them try to kidnap Black senior to prevent him from stopping the show. 

Although he is fighting his father over the future of the youth club, Nicky can't allow them to harm him, so he attacks the attackers and frees his father. In the meantime, Black senior has realised that his son is the mystery singer that all of London is talking about, after the youth club members have done some pirate broadcasts to promote their show. 

So, although he's just bought the theatre where the show is to take place, in order to be able to stop it, the proud father decides that the show must go one. At the end, he joins the youth club members on stage, dancing and singing, after having promised to build them a new youth club.




Here is the trailer for the film - how is the representation of British Youth different here to what you have previously seen? 

The representation of british youths within this time period has alternated between two differing personalities, one of young adults being obnoxious, rude individual whilst the other represents happy-go-lucky type of teenagers. These rude teenagers were often seen barraging the costal towns of England, ruining anything that stood in their path. They would usually fit into two sub cultures including the mods and the rockers who were seen as the most dominant sub cultures within the 1960's. The more polite representation of young adults in Britain didn't usually relate with other sub cultures therefore there was no influence on their personality, this meant that the teenagers were often seen in a brighter light. 

There was also a contrast in different attributes in which the alternating representation of young people would have. More notably the ruder representation of youths often followed the traits of their sub cultures, for example the mods would usually be seen wearing smart clothing including a suit and tie, followed by a gelled back haircut. The jollier representation of youths were often portrayed as having 'perfect' traits including having appropriate manners, an suitable education and a fashion sense which made them look like respectable adults. 

In what ways do the media texts referenced above create a representation of young people as being a danger to society?

In what ways do the media texts referenced above create a representation of young people as being a danger to society?

Within the early forms of media practices, journalists would exaggerate stories in which would usually be seen as a 'normal' headline in todays media. The reason why it was so exaggerated was because during the 1950's, it was common to abide the law meaning it was incredibly rare to see a news headline which highlighted aggressive behaviour. 

There was a new extreme to exaggeration throughout regional newspapers within the 1960's due to the scandalous behaviour of sub cultures including mods and rockers. The exaggeration was usually represented by the use of explicit adjectives within the headlines of newspapers, an example would be from a headline written by the 'Daily Sketch' which pronounced 'Wildest Ones Yet'. The use of the adjective 'wildest' could be seen as quite controversial as the word usually refers to stray animals and what the journalist is trying to highlight is that the gangs are acting in a similar way. Also the way the Daily Sketch had written the headlines in capitals represents the awareness the newspaper are creating from the situation, they are trying to address more readers to be aware of the ridiculous situation which the mods and rockers are creation throughout Britain.

Another way various media texts created an representation of young people as being dangerous were through the use of images published throughout newspapers and television. These pictures usually displayed acts of neglect and danger towards consumers which then acted as a tool to help the consumer stereotype young people as being a danger to society. These pictures however only highlighted the more dangerous acts that the miniscule amount of young people would commit, thus causing a misinterpretation of young people even if they wern't involved in the gang violence.

Dick Hebdige: Sub Culture, The Meaning Of Style

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subculture:_ The_Meaning_of_style

Above is a link to the novel Dick Hebdige wrote in 1979 regarding the mean of style and subcultures.

"Members of  a subculture often subject their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, music and mannerisms" - Hebdige (1979)

I have chosen the following subculture 'Greaser' to research and learn about the different mannerisms, music tastes and fashion types that Greasers follow.

Style

The greaser subculture follow a distinctive type of style and fashion tastes, below is a list of the clothing  and style which makes up the stereotypical greaser.

Men greasers:

- White t-shirt
- Leather jacket, seen as rebellious during the 50's
- Ripped jeans, seen as rebellious during the 50's as denim was an anti-established type of clothing. Levi's were the most popular type of jeans back in the 1950's

Women greasers:

- Wind breaker
- Dickies or levi's work jacket
- leather jacket

Music tastes
Greasers were interested in rebellious types of artists which were trending throughout the 1950's, these included the following:

- Elvis Pressley
- James Dean
- Buddy Holly
- Ritchie Vallance

Music artists were incredibly influencal on teenagers within the 1950's as the different genres of music created different types of groups and styles to form, people chose which groups they would fall into  meaning groups wanted to become more popular than others. They became more popular through rebellion as at the time it wasn't known to rebel against the rest of society.

Mannerisms

The greasers were known as rebellious and therefore acted against the law and the rest of society, they had to act a certain way in order to become rebellious, therefore greasers had certain, distinctive mannerisms.
- Rebellious
- Rude language
-  Not respective

UK Tribes

Channel 4 put together a show that split up all the different sub-cultures within the british community, below are all the sub cultures they had found:

They believe that everyones starts in the mainstream tribe then move not other more confident tribes such as urban and alternative.

The media and collective identity

We will be focussing on the ways in which the media represent the identity of British Youth Culture.

Through the work we undertake you should be able to resopond to the following 4 prompt questions:

• How do the contemporary media represent 'British Youth' in different ways?
• How does contemporary representation of 'British Youth' compare to previous time periods?
• What are the social implications of different media representations of 'British Youth'?
• To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?

We will explore the representation of 'British Youth' across at least 2 different elements of the media. For film this will include theories of film representation and realism in relation to the history of British cinema, a range of British films from recent years, funding, Government and industry practices, and discussion of a critically informed point of view on how Britain is represented to itself and to the wider audience at the present time.

In order to be fully prepared for the specific requirements of the question, the material studied must cover these three elements:

Historical – the development of the media forms in question in theoretical contexts.

Contemporary – examples from no more than five years before the examination. That is, in our case, from no earlier than 2009.

Future – personal engagement with debates about the future of the media forms / issues in relation to the concept of 'British Youth'.

Rules For The Exam

The majority of examples you refer to in the exam should be contemporary. However, theories and approaches may be drawn from any time period.

If you refer to only one media area in your answer, the mark scheme clearly indicates that marks will be restricted to a maximum of the top of level 1.

If you fail to provide or infer historical references and / or future projections, marks will be restricted to a maximum of the top of level 3 for use of examples only.