Print Representations

C4 Teen Trouble 2007

• People think that youths commit a great deal of crime but in reality it's 12%
• Newspapers write about the most exciting stories
• Dispersal orders and 'mosquitos' are enforced to help try to stop youth trouble
• 'Queen ASBO' treated horribly by the media
• Youths are victimised and discriminated against
• 6 times more likely to die by falling down the stairs than by being stabbed, but media represent knife crime to be almost an epidemic
• Despite the debates about the hypodermic syringe theory, you could argue that because of creation of moral panic proliferation of negative press this theory does exist from adults.
• Cultivating the adults mind and the perception created by society in demonising youths, more you see it more you believe it's actually happening.
• Desensitisation theory links here, where with so much coverage of youths being terrors adults get used to it, and are more likely to not be emotionally effected by it.
• How responsible are the newspapers and the government?

Riots - Representing youths

• IPSOS MORI Survey 2005 - 40% of articles focus on violence, crime, anit-social behaviour; 71% are negative
• Brunel University 2007 - TV news: violent crime or celbrities; young people are only 1% sources
• Women in Journalism 2008 - 72% of articles were negative; 3.4% positive. 75% about crime, drugs, police. Boys; youbs, thugs, sick, feral, hoodies, louts, scum. Only postive stories are about boys who died young

Case study - What role did new media technologies, particularly social networking sites play in the London riots? Do media cause riots or revolutions? Technology and surviellance: mobile phones, CCTV, 24hour news...

'Broken Britain' article

• How can you link cultural hegemony to this article? in this article she mentions how there is a class division between middle and lower class, in society and in schools. With parents not wanting them to integrate, this shows how the ruling class want to hold on to their dominance over lower class students, so by keeping them apart it helps keep this division. She notes how MPs are categrising lower class youths with all having bad behaviour, and labelling the country as 'Broken Britain' she says how this may 'risk entrenching class divisions in education even more deeply.'
• How does the article suggest moral panic is being caused? Media and the ruling class like the Government have creating this moral panic which makes the public and middle class see that the youths are all having bad behaviour and are out of control, therefore they see all youths to be like this therefore they fear all youths that are working class.
• Can you link in McRobbie's Symbolic Violence theory? How?
• How far do you agree with this article that governments decisions and policies are continuing to create a divide between the middle and working class? Discuss

Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson.

Media and Collective Identity

Media Use in Identity Construction

Katherine Hamley:

•       Young people are surrounded by influential imagery – popular media (Examples?) Internet – social networking sites, You Tube, news reports, magazines, television, films, celebrities, music

•      It is no longer possible for an identity to just be constructed in a small community and influenced by a family (Discuss) With different media influencing society and individuals it is the people outside of small communities and the family that are constructing one’s identity. On the Internet we portray ourselves as something to the world, on social networking sites such as Facebook we create how we want to be perceived, by our images and our posts. This is then created to show the ‘friends’ who we are and what we like, therefore creating an identity, this identity may potentially be somewhat different to how others perceive ourselves in the communities and family. People see images portrayed in media and see what they would like to be like, whether it’s positive or negative, we choose how others see us and it is influenced by media.

•      Everything concerning our lives is ‘media saturated’ (What does this mean?) Wherever we go, whatever we do we are surrounded by some form of media. Whether it is the TV shows we watch, the websites we go on or the music we listen to. Media will always influence us in some way. ‘Media saturated’ is where we are in a society that is controlled by media and it is then embedded in our own identities and way of life.

“Identity is complicated – everybody thinks they’ve got one” – David Gauntlett

Buckingham – he classifies identity as an ‘ambiguous and slippery’ term

·         Identity is something unique to each of us, but also implies a relationship with a broader group

·         Identity can change according to our circumstances

·         Identity is fluid and is affected by broader changes

·         Identity becomes more important to us if we feel it is threatened.

Cultural Imperialism – social mobility, globalisation, immigration



Gauntlett



• The average teenager can create numerous identities in a short space of time
• We like to think we are unique, but Gauntlett questions whether this is an illusion, and we are all much more similar than we think

5 Key Points by Gauntlett

1. Creativity as a process - about emotions and experiences
2. Making and Sharing - to feel alive, to participate, in community
3. Happiness - through creativity and community
4. Creativity as scoial glue - a middle layer between individuals and society
5. Making your mark - making the world your own

Online Media

Connotations of Facebook

• social networking site
• no privacy
• attention seeking status' and pictures
• not as good as twitter
• funny groups
• boring now
• sharing
• stalking
• addicting

Negatives - cyber bullying and addictive
Positives - interact with old friends, good form of entertainment and share your interests

What new forms of social interaction have media technologies enabled?

• globalisation
• development of own identity
• collective intelligence
• consumer communication with businesses
• awareness of bands or skills
• interactive dialogue
• User generated content
• self-presentation and self-disclosure

Online media are especially suitable to construct and develop several identies of the self - Turkle

The modern identity concept

• Personal identity - sense of being a unique individual
• Social identity - results from being a member of a group
• Mediazation of the self - diversity of interest groups in online social networks - easy transition between those communities

Digital identity

• a person has not just one stable and homogeneous identity
• identity consists of several fragments that permanetly change
• multiple, but coherent
• a live-long developing and new conceptualized patchwork

The Internet - Celebrities found through You Tube

• Justin Bieber
• Jessie J
• Ed Sheeran
• Chris Crocker
• Charlie bit my finger
• Esmee Denters
• Rebecca Black
• Star Wars kid

Memes - a catchphrase or consept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet.

An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube - Michael Wesch

Whilst watching the video answer these questions

1.       When was Youtube first released? 2005

2.       According to Michael Wesch what does Web 2.0 allow people to do? linking people

3.       When media changes what else changes? human relationships change

4.       What influenced the loss of community? And what has now filled this void? less free time,

5.       How are communities connected? through roads and tvs, through phones and media 

6.       Explain what he means by voyeuristic capabilities?

7.       Write 3 points about what he refers when he discusses playing with identity

• 
   

8.       What does the ‘Free hugs phenomenon’ suggest about people? people coming together, uniting

Theory (Extended)

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.
	1920s	Hypodermic Theory/Magic Bullet (Audience effects theory)	This theory suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data; so we can ultimately be easily manipulated (similar model to that of propaganda). It does not recognise that as customers we have more control over how the media influences us.
		Copy Cat (audience effects theory)	Refers to how the media influence and affects the audience’s behaviour and how they think. It relates to something publicized in the media that creates a lot of attention, causing other people to imitate in order to gain the same level attention. The well-known example of this is copycat murders, suicides and other violent acts that come with no other motive other than attention, caused by seeing the same acts in the media; be it film, TV or books.
Stuart Hall	1980	Encoding – Decoding theory (Audience reception theory)	Stuart Hall suggests that the audience does not simply passively accept a text. There are, in his views, 3 ways in which audiences can read or decode and understand a text: 1.    Preffered reading/dominant Hegemonic – when an audience interprets the message as it was meant to be understood, they are operating in the dominant code. The producers and the audience are in harmony. 2.    Negotiating reading – not all audiences may understand what media producers take for granted. There may be some acknowledgement of differences in understanding. Audiences will understand the over-riding dominant ideologies within the text but they may not agree with all the views/ideas; audiences will make their own ground rules to get to the agreed dominant ideology (they will take a different path). 3.    Oppositional reading/counter-hegemonic – when an audience understands the context of the media text but they will decode the text in a completely different way; opposing the encoded text.

Representations in The Inbetweeners Movie and Fish Tank

The Inbetweeners- Director Ben Palmer, 2011

• Age - young adults, late teens, nearly adults, wanting to have their own independence and freedom, parents are seen to be quite embarrassing and 'old'

• Ethnicity - all white, in some films ethnic characters are represented negatively so this is showing the positive representations of white youths

• Gender - mainly males being represented, dominating, with girls being referred to very negatively - seen as sexual objects to the boys.

• Social class and society - seem to be lower middle class, if they were working class youths it may not come across as positive, with the other films we've seen the representations of youths have been negative and they have been working class, so there is some connection

• Working class British youths are generally being represented as being violent, brutal, unapologetic, criminals, addictive personalities - Harry Brown, Quadrophenia, Kidulthood, Eden Lake
• VS
• Middle class British youths are generally more law abiding, conscience citizens - the Inbetweeners
• On top of this the antagonists are always the working class youths and middle class adults are positioned to be the protagonists

Fish Tank- Director Andrea Arnold, 2009

• What ideas are used to introduce the main character? Fighting against society, herself and her mum. She's a victim of her surroundings.
• What are the similarities and differences between Fish Tank and Harry Brown? More deep and emotional, hand held camera technique - more real, far more sympathetic, unusual female protagonist

Almost all teenage characters in representations are clearly working class
Main adult characters tend to be middle class
Representations may be said to reflect middle class anxiety at threat of working class to hegemonic dominance

‘How are British youths represented in Quadrophenia and Harry Brown’

‘How are British youths represented in Quadrophenia and Harry Brown’

The British youths in Harry Brown and Quadrophenia are represented in very negative ways. The films are about violence, freedom and unity of gangs. The youths are acting in violent and deviant ways that cause a negative reaction to the public and the adults around them.
In Quadrophenia when there are the riots between the mods and rockers on Brighton beach were represented as very badly behaving youths taking the law into their own hands. Cohen's moral panics link here, where the media represent the youths as something to be feared, and exaggerate what they are doing, and make the public fear them, like with Giroux and his empty category, it is the adults fears created by the moral panics that are incorporated into the viewing and perception of the youths. The moral panics play a big part in the representation of youths because it signals how the public are going to view the youths, so if the media represent the youths in a negative light the public are going to think of youths negatively, and assume that all youths, not just the 'mods', 'rockers' or 'hoodies' are bad. Therefore, when the labels of being violent or bad or unimportant begin to be attached by the public and the ruling class to the youths they begin what Merton describes as a self-fulfilling prophecy where the apply those labels to their behaviour.
In Quadrophenia there is a rivalry between two groups of youths in the film, the mods and rockers. However, the youths in Harry Brown are not against another subculture, they are against the middle and upper class society, a cultural hegemony where they are frustrated as being seen as the lower class, and as less important or less significant so they make themselves something to be feared so that they become important to society. Their frustration leads them to violence.
The youths in Quadrophenia have their own identities, not just British youths but as 'mods' or 'rockers', enabling them to create their own rules and morals as their way of life. It creates hostility against each other, even though they are the same in many ways, just by their appearance and their names for each other they are divided against the rest of the society. They are not conforming with the rest of the nation, the mods have had no specific style because it continuously changes, they go against conforming to the mainstream ways.
The attitude of the youths in Harry Brown is very much that they are the ruling class, and that they own the estate they live in because everyone is too afraid to stand up to them. They believe they are better than everyone else, this could be cultural hegemony because they are frustrated with the way they have been previously treated so they resort to violence and use intimidation to become the ruling class.
The identity of the youths is important, because in Quadrophenia the mods have chosen to be mods and have chosen that way of life. However, in Harry Brown the youths have had no choice in the way they are brought up and the way they are perceived. They have not applied that label to themselves like the mods have, it is the society and the media that  have done that. So the youths in Harry Brown have had no choice and have had to build their attitudes and actions around their label.
The parents in Quadrophenia are represented as trying to control the youths. The main character Jimmy's mum kicks him out after she finds out he was involved in the riot on Brighton beach and when she finds his stash of pills. When the mum kicks Jimmy out, it causes him frustration and anger that would make him probably even more determined to disobey her.
The parental figures in Harry Brown are very negative, they are not what traditional middle class parents would deem as appropriate for youths to grow up with. They're attitudes are incorporated into the youths way of life, so if their parent is a violent deviant of the law then the children are most likely to become just like them.
Parental figures however, in both films, are very non-apparent, with hardly any showing or representations of parents. It is arguable that they are to blame for the way the youths are represented no just in the media, but also in their society, in their neighbourhoods. Media do not cover as much on who should be blamed for the actions of the youths, is it the capitalist society as Marxists would argue, is it the media, is it the youths themselves and their own free will, or is it the parents who have brought up the children to be like that?
McRobbie's symbolic violence relating to gender links here, where the youths are almost all males in both films. They are the leaders of the pack, much like a pack of animals, with some (very few) females in with them. In Quadrophenia there is a main female who is viewed very negatively in the film. In Harry Brown there is a female police woman who is viewed more positively, and tries to stand up to them, which ends in disastrous ways, but she is not one of the youths, so still youths are represented negatively. This may show, as feminists would put it, a patriarchal portrayal of the youths in the films, and that the female youths, a small minority in both films, are seen as the subordinate to the male youths.
You could also argue that race plays a part in the way youths are represented. In Quadrophenia it is mostly white males who are causing the violence, and in Harry Brown it is much more ethnic groups as well as white who are responsible for the violence. This representation of ethnic minority groups therefore becomes negative because it is a relatively new representation.
Quadrophenia is a film from the 1970s whilst Harry Brown is a contemporary film, this makes it inevitable for there to be some differences between the youths and how they're represented. In Quadrophenia they are labelling themselves as being either 'mods' or 'rockers', but in Harry Brown there is no clear cut name that the youths call themselves. This may be as in Quadrophenia it is post war and the term 'teens' had not been around very long. This made it possible for new names and labels to be associated with the youths because it was a new thing so no one could call the labels wrong. However, nowadays we all know what teenagers are and now more and more subcultures are developing. Now it has become norm for deviant teenagers to use violence as a source of power, using weapons. As in the 1970s film there are next to no weapons used, it is all about the physical violence, less dangerous then today. In contemporary media there doesn't have to be a riot for someone to get hurt, as seen in Harry Brown all the youths have to do is shoot their gun at an unsuspecting victim.
In Harry Brown the youths are represented as 'monsters' of the modern day horror film, they are seen as something scary and to be feared.
The youths in Quadrophenia on the other hand are not represented as badly, more so just as deviants that need to be controlled, not violent and unsafe criminals.

Explanation/analysis/argument - Level 4 (17)
Use of examples - Level 3 (14)
Use of terminology - Level 3 (7)
Level Descriptor - Level 3

Good balance of knowledge and theories, linking with each argument. Some repetition and not clearly rounded arguments, but good arguments all the same. Some minor grammar and spelling errors but overall good :o)

Quadrophenia and This is England

They are very similar looking posters. The characters are all lined up against a wall in both. The connotations of the posters, could be that they are standing up for themselves, guarding something and their poses show they are in charge and not to be messed with. The way they are standing shows a unity of violence, both films show violence. The colours represent the UK flag, of red, white and blue, showing they are proud to be British.

Teddy Boys

Teddy boys were in the 1950s, after the first world war were subcultures and freedom were invented, and so were teens.
Teddy boys were based around Rock'n'Roll music, this was a big movement at the time, coming from America to Britain and shaking things up.

Their style was inspired from the Edwardian period.

Their hair, very slicked back with grease, much like the characters from the Grease movies.