British youth

Giroux argues that in media representations youth becomes an empty category. This is because media representations of young people are constructed by adults. As a result of this media representations of young people do not necessarily reflect the reality of youth identity. who constructed the representation and who it is aimed at?

Hebridge argues that the representations of young people are quite limited showing them as either fun or trouble. This does not relate to reality.

Cohen: the representation of working class youth suggest that they have become a contemporary folk devil, concerns about a benefit culture and in the long term unemployment. A moral panic occurs when the media reports on these folk devils in a sensationalised way. The effect of moral panics is to reassert  hegemony by allowing a society to make it clear what values it does not accept.

Eden lake: this film  represents contemporary working class British youth in extremely negative ways. It has a middle class adult character as the main protagonist. It begins by introducing us to Jenny and Steve who are clearly represented as middle class. They are contrasted with the working class teenagers who are initially shown engaged in anti social behaviour-listening to loud music and swearing. This escalated into them hunting and killing the middle class teenagers. The film uses the conventions of a horror film to portray working class teenagers as monsters. Middle class characters are therefore tortured and killed by working class youths which is supposed to leave the audience horrified. Aimed at a wider target audience.

Fish Tank- film employs a similar broken British approach with a sink estate setting, dysfunctional broken family and anti social behaviour. But Mia is represented in a more sympathetically way and is seen in a more victim role. Middle class boyfriend character is represented more negatively , exploiting Mia. This sympathetic approach could be related to issues of genre as it is a low budget independent film at a niche audience of art film fans.

Misfits uses stereotypical images of ASBO teens but represents them in a like able way. Does not have an adult point of view. The characters are represented quite negatively. In the opening episode the probation officer is represented as a monster. use of superhero trope to make the representation more positive. challenges negative stereotypes. shown on a channel aimed at a young audience.

Hoodies or altar boys: study of newspaper representations of teenage boys found that these representations were extremely negative. Most popular words used to describe them in news reports were thugs, yobs, evil, monsters or scum. The majority of stories about teenage boys were in relation of crime. The representation makes the audience fearful of teenagers. According to Cohen this creates a moral panic for society.  It also relates to Aclands theory as these representations reinforce hegemony by identifying what is acceptable behaviour and what is unacceptable.

Reception theory- the audience will receive the text differently depending on their class gender and ethnicity- Morley

Eastenders- =Liam gets influenced by a gang in trying to become part of them and join their 'group'. He starts to adopt their behaviour and becomes violent and talks back to his Mum. Absent father, Ricky could be the main cause of this and he does not have an adult male figure to look up to. This is as form of youth subculture and they form an identity in terms of their style; clothes. Stereotype of British youth to be apart of a gang especially in parts of London such as Brixton. Always news coverage about gangs and crimes that they have committed such as knife crime. Special slang not shared with society; they have their own vocabulary and language.

Can be identified with specific music such as Hip hop and figures and artists like 50 cent.

1960'-1970's quadrophenia film about the mods and rockers in Britain. they are engaged in getting into fights with one another in Brighton. negative representations of youth in the media is not a new construction.

Most media representations of young British youth is negative this is because it reflects the concerns of their middle class producers and as a result produce hegemony. More positive representations can be found on television channels at younger people like E4. The representations of British youth in the media has an effect on their identity as not all of young teenagers are the same eg violent. the media therefore creates a stereotype and image about them which makes the audience look down on them in a way especially by the older generation. However, social media such as social networking sites allows young people to construct their own identity however this self representation has a limited impact compared to the mass media.