How does contemporary representation compare to previous time perods?

Youth Sub-culture

· A group of individuals who are united through a common value system and tastes (clothes, music, politics etc.)

· A group who are also positioned outside of the mainstream, and who unify as a response to the mainstream.

· Hoodies, emos, preppy, chavs, indie, scene, skinheads, Teddy boys, skaters, greasers, jocks, plastics

· Chavs - wearing fake Burberry, tacky gold jewellery, riding round on bikes or driving cars with low suspension, rap/grime music, tracksuits, ideologies - they are 'cool' or 'hard', may use violence to get what they want, think they are better than anyone else, baseball caps, they are evolving now, wearing chinos - taking

· Subcultures are formed to be different - then it turns mainstream and people lose interest and join another subculture.

Values of the subculture - conformity and rebellion, attitude to capitalism and consumerism, 'tribal' rivalry, traditional or 'neophile' (a person who loves novelty, one who likes trends, people who accept the future enthusiastically and enjoys changes and evolution)

· ideology in the 1950s and 1960s - peace, rebellion against parents, radicalism - reactions against the post war 

· Many groups are involved in protest and resistance against the mainstream...

· teams will often move between subcultures, and older youths mix and match styles/values from a mix of subcultures

Subculture

· in the 21st century the 'dominant meaning systems' are crumbling

· "there is no mainstream, there are many streams." Mainstream is a perpetual flux, rapaciously absorbing alternative culture at such a fast rate that the notion of a mainstream becomes absolute

· so if there is no mainstream then there is nothing for the teens to react against

1950s teddies

· anti-establishment subculture - juvenile delinquents - going against the systems

· drainpipe jackets, drape Edwardian jackets with velvet collars, string ties or slim-jims and duck arse haircuts and sideburns

· minority in Britain but major effect

· music - introduction of Rock n Roll

1960s mods

· mod - modernist to describe modern jazz musicians and fans

· uniform is hard to describe and they were prone to continuous revitalisation

· as psychedelic rock and the hippie subculture grew more popular  - people drifted away from the mods

· original mods in the 1960s were getting into the age of marriage and having kids which meant that they no longer had the time and money for their youthful past times

· So they died out

1960s skinheads

· w/c youths

· cropped or shaven heads - influenced by west Indian rude boys and British mods in terms of fashion, music and lifestyle

· attitudes towards race and politics have become factors by which they identify themselves

1970s punks

· based around punk rock

· loud aggressive music

· individual freedom

· standing up for their rights

· anti-consumerism

· anti- authoritarianism and anti-establishment

The Cultural Revolution

· What happened before the 1950s?

· following the end of WWII entered a period of individual freedom and affluence

· teens didn't exist before WWII

· many of the old subcultures began to be challenged and new ones came in

· So what changed? - rationing was coming to an end, the American Dream was becoming key aspirations to British youths, introduction of commercial TV, availability of cheap colourful magazines - luxury commodities. a worldwide economic boom, 'Set the people free' - conservative slogan

· America's influence- cultural degeneration, Hollywood movies, TV, glossy mags and consumer goods proved an instant hot with British consumers, Cultural Imperialism - one culture influencing another

· car ownership rose by 250% between 1951 and 1961 and average weekly earnings rose by 34% while the costs of most technological consumer items fell in real terms - more money to spend on goods. - affluence

Rebel Without a Cause

Wild One

Section B Question 6 Media and Collective Identity
For A2 I have studies the representation of women in both contemporary and historical media. As David Buckingham noted in 2008, “identity is fluid and changeable” – and arguably the identity of women in recent times has changed, some may argue it has become more mediated.

Identity itself refers to who we actually are, the construction of ourselves – perhaps even the representation of ourselves and our social groups that we as media consumers wish to have. While many such as Buckingham and Gauntlett champion the fact the create and construct our own identities; others such aa Theordore Adorno see identity as something pushed upon us by the mass media, that we have no alternative but to take the dominant identities we are exposed to “something is offered for all so that none may escape,” he writes in explanation of this fact. Adorno therefore argues that our identities are becoming increasingly mediated – that is, that they influenced by the mass media, inherent identifies are weak and influenced by the media around us.

‘Nuts’ magazine is a stereotypical ‘lad’s mag’, aimed at 18-24 year old males. In ana analysis of the 19-25th March 2010 issue I performed the content proves interesting with regards to representation of women. Images of semi-naked females in suggestive poses represent women as victims of symbiotic annihilation. They are portrayed as merely objects of sexual pleasure for men – the images have been constructed, Laure Mulvey would argue with her theory of the Male Gaze, solely with the male consumers in mind, who using the Uses and Gratifications Model are consuming the text for sexual pleasure. Most significant here, however, is the so-called Mirror Effect of Mulvey’s Male Gaze.

This states that women themselves consuming the images will apply the Male Gaze, and see the female in the image in a sense of what Baudrillard would call hyperreality, assuming the idea that this representation is ‘how women should be’ and in turn they should construct their identities similarly in order to appeal to males – aftr all women are the subdominant group in an apparent patriarchal society. Identity therefore has become mediated in this situation as Adorno says. The “culture industry” that is the mass media has imposed a dominant representation onto a collective group; who have felt pressured to adapt it as part of their collective identity.

In the 2001 film “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”, Lara Croft, the main female character is represented as fairly masculine (stereotypically masculine) in terms of her choice of clothing, body language and manner. All of these micro-elements construct her identity. However, throughout the film, we also see Croft use what can be considered the concept of femininity to her advantage, flirting with male characters and wearing stereotypically feminine clothes towards the final scenes.

In terms of her character’s identity this supports Buckingham’s aforementioned assumption that “identity is fluid and changeable” but also conforms to Queer Theory. Queer Theory is widely recognized in Judith Butler’s 1990 book ‘Gender Trouble’ and states that the genders male and female are just as much the product of representation as the concepts of masculinity and femininity. She calls for a blurring of boundaries between genders and their stereotypical identities and calls for the media to celebrate such diversity. As a character, Croft arguably has blurred the boundaries displaying traits of both male and female behaviour.

If Adorno’s assertions are applied here it can be argued that again the dominant identity of women as sly, untrustworthy and in need of patriarchal dominance is being applied through Croft’s deviant use of fronting identity to her advantage.
However some could argue that the prominence of Queer Theory does not encourage the mediation of female identity instead it encourages dominant representations to be characterized and boundaries to be blurred – implying greater personal control over identity as advocated by John Fiske and David Buckingham rather than mediated identities.

Cosmopolitan is a magazine aimed at females around 30+. In all ways it can be said that pragmatically the magazine pushes femininity as an identity for itself, with stereotypically female colours and text styles. In turn, the feminine identity of the magazine is applied as a representation of the readers, further suggesting a mediation of women’s identity. The magazine focuses heavily on beauty and fitness, reinforcing the dominant ideology of the “ideal” women that women should aspire to a fixed concept of beauty.

As an example in the April 2010 issue a large image of Holly Willoughby (celebrity) features on the cover. Although unlike Nuts magazine, she is wearing fairly covering clothing and lacks cosmetic make-up, it is interesting to note that her clothing is white in colour – Ferdinand de Saussure would note that this has semiotic significance using his semiotic theory and Roland Barthe’s levels of signification, we can identify that white has connotations of innocence and weakness. Therefore this represents her as innocent and weak – reinforcing dominant patriarchal representations of women. Due to her status as a celebrity, her level of influence is great. In herself she is a semiotic symbol of success and affluence, so those who take inspiration from her will take this constructed innocence and weakness and apply it to their own identities. This is a clear example of the mediation of identity. It suggests a passive audience, influenced by the mass media as Adorno and other quasi-Marxists would suggest.

It can be seen therefore, that as post modernists say, we live in a media saturated society. We are surrounded by signs which cannot be ignored. Women in the media are often represented as varying, whether it be as sexual objects for the pleasure of males; or as innocent, as ‘stay at home’ housewives as suggested in 2008’s film Hancock. Here, despite possessing stereotypically male strength and ‘superpowers’, the lead female aspires to be a housewife – reinforcing the sub-dominant representation of women. Either way however women are often the victims of mediation. The theories of consumption and construction of identity from theorists such as Adorno and Mulvey clearly show that despite the specific representations, one common identity is ‘forced’ upon women in the media – a subdominant social group living in a patriarchal society. Identity is constructed using this as a basis; and even media texts which challenge this representation and encourage Queer Theory diversity are still arguably mediating identity with their influence. Identity is fluid and changeable and can be individually constructed as Gauntlett and Buckingham state. But arguable, the mass media are, and have, mediated the identity of women in contemporary society.

EAA 20/20
EG 18/20
T 10/10
(48)

Eden Lake Review

"we hate and fear our children - because they are going to kill us. Eden Lake has the same idea. The confrontation here isn't about race and not even exclusively about class; it's not about townies and hillbillies, or blacks and whites, or yuppies and chavs. At bottom, it's about older people and the young: a gang of feral children who are as powerful as adults."

This is from a review done by Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian on 12 September 2008. His opinion on the movie is that it was a very well made film, with some plot glitches but overall a very thrilling horror.  He talks about the youths and the older characters going against each other, and the divide that is within them. This may relate to the theory of cultural hegemony, because it shows the class divide between the two main groups. And how they may be frustrated with their place in society so they act out, as the youths do in Eden Lake and fight against the middle class.

"the kids? Scarily recognisable - they’re like the lot that hang outside your local Kwik Save, and they’re frighteningly good."

Simon Crook, Empire Online. This shows how the kids portrayed in this film are like the ones audiences would know in their own society and villages. They are represented in such a way that is very realistic, so much so that it may scare the audience, could cause a moral panic. This may occur because the film enhances the youths and shows their behaviour in a very extreme way, this could mean that the audience think all youths like them are going to act and behave in similar ways to the characters in Eden Lake. ‘Frighteningly good’ is a good way to describe the portrayal of youths.

Theory

Theorist	Year	Concepts	Your explanation
Giroux	1997	Youth as empty category	The youths are blamed by others. In Attack the Block, even though the youths were the heroes at the end, they were blamed and arrested; the police assumed that they were in the wrong. They didn't create their own identity, the media do and fill in their category with fear and violence.
Acland	1995	Ideology of protection; deviant youth and reproduction of social order	Media representations of youths out of control allow the state to enforce laws and control over them.
Gramsci	1971 (1929-1935)	Cultural hegemony	Social Class struggle, how they are dominating their culture and society. The youths in the films Attack the Block, Harry Brown and Eden Lake are going against the middle class. They have a class of their own and are rebelling against them.
Cohen	1972	Moral panic	The media and the ruling class creates a ‘moral panic’ which is where the public fear what the media is representing. For example, these contemporary films, like Harry Brown and Eden Lake, would make the public very aware of the danger they face with these youths. The media go to extreme lengths to portray youths negatively. They are exaggerated mostly, to make public even more fearful of it. This keeps a cultural hegemony.
McRobbie	2004	Symbolic Violence	Not even recognised as violence, such as racism and gender bias. In the media and in the 3 films we watched it is dominated by men. Males are seen in a very negative light, even in Eden Lake Steve isn't seen as being macho because he can't stand up to a bunch of youths.
Gerbner	1986	Cultivation Theory	He examined the long term effects that TV had on American audiences. This could relate to British audiences, when they watch the films like Harry Brown etc. they may get a shock and become very scared and change their behaviour towards youths that they see in Britain.

Exam

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)

• 1a) theoretical evaluation of skill development over the course of the two years (both AS and A2 c/w productions including preliminary task and ancillary tasks)
• Asked to refer to any one of these skill developments: digital technology, creativity, research and planning, post-production and using conventions from real media texts
• 1b) theoretical evaluation of one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept
• One of these media concepts will come up: genre, narrative, representation, audience and media language

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)

• 2) Contemporary Media Issues - Media and collective identity - The representation of British Youth and youth culture
• 4 Questions:
  1) how do the contemporary media represent British youth and youth culture in different ways?
  2) How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?
  3) What are the social implications of different media representations British youth and youth culture?
  4) To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?
• Historical
• Contemporary
• Future

What is Identity?

My definition: How you represent yourself, and how you are perceived.

Real definition: The fact of being who or what a person or thing is

How do the contemporary media represent British youth and youth culture in different ways?

Harry Brown (2009)
Director: Daniel Barber

In Harry Brown young people are represented in a very negative way. It is how people perceive youths and their youth culture. In the opening sequence there was displays of drugs, violence, murder, weapons all very negative things that show how young people act. The mise-en-scene also represents them badly, the hoodies are a very popular image related to youths at the moment, this puts all youths in a box labelled 'hoodies', they are hooligans causing trouble, and in some extreme cases, like in Harry Brown they are causing very bad things to happen, like shooting in broad daylight on an estate.  The camera was a hand held camera, this is very different to the typical Hollywood cameras used in America and for more high budget films. You can tell it's a British film, because it is set in an estate in England, not very glamorous. The handi-cam gives it more of a fast pace, quite scary for the audience to watch. It is like the audience become part of the gang because the are right in the middle of it, and when they are on the bike in the film, it is as if the audience are on that bike too, because it is filmed from the youth on the bike. When he gets hit by the car the camera goes down with him and therefore so do we as the audience.

Guardian (November 2009)

• misunderstood
• compared to monsters
• compared to vampires (non-fiction vs fiction)
• breaking through the mediated representations
• me me me society (selfishly motivated)
• lower class - underclass
• self-fulfilling prophecy
• primitive                                                    
• environment - physicality on where they live
• implications on society - fear - moral panic
• hoodies - associated with the KKK and the grim reaper

Eden Lake (2008)
Director: James Watkins

• How are Jenny and Steve (the main couple) represented? To be a middle class happy couple,
• How is this contrasted with the representation of the other characters? They seem to be rough, not very well educated, quite intimidating
• How important is the issue of social class? The youths would not like them because they may see them as snobs, the couple may see the youths as trouble makers and no good.
• How are young people represented? As being the 'baddies' or the villains of the film. They torment the couple and are trouble.

Horror and the Representation of Youth

• Film theorist Robin Wood argues that the basic formula of the horror film is 'normailty' here...to mean simply 'conformity to the dominant social norms'.

1. What is the significance of the emergence of a cycle of British films in which the 'monster' is young people? It could make the public audience go into a sort of moral panic, where they are scared and fearful of the villains of films these days. They are scarily realistic, unlike the vampires or monsters in other horror films. The audience know that this could happen and that there are youths like this in their society. It is extreme circumstances, but that's what makes them good horror films, because there is a balance with reality and horror to make entertainment. Since there are quite a few films with the baddies being youths it becomes the norm thing in our society for the youths to be shown in a negative way.
2. How do the threaten normality? They threaten normality because it makes it harder for the audience what is being representative and what is being made up for the purposes of the film. It makes it harder to differentiate what is normal and what is extreme at the moment, with these films out, because they are so realistic.
3. What term could we use instead of normality? Realistic

Attack the Block (2011)
Director: Joe Cornish

1. How are the main characters introduced? Intimidated, fearless, low-key lighting, swearing - colloquial language, low camera angle - intimidation to audience, mise-en-scene
2. How does this representation change? Opening sequence stereotypical hoodie representation. As the film progresses the representation becomes more positive. Develops a more sympathetic representation. The film initially represents the young people as 'monsters', then replaces them with actual monsters. Contrast to other 'hoodie horror films'