2. For this presentation, I shall be discussing about how the British youth is represented
within different types of media.
3. How is youth being represented within
television?
• There are a variety of ways in which British Youth is represented in a film called Kidulthood.
Stereotypical representation has been portrayed in the Kidulthood. A key character in this
film, called Alisa, is showed to be pregnant through long shots which shows exactly what
she's doing, which also is representing that the British youth are not careful or mature
enough therefore they have unprotected sex without knowing the consequences of the
stressful period of time. Furthermore, I believe that this is a negative way of representing the
British youth. Similarly, there was an extreme close up used in this film showing a character
named Becky selling her body to disrespectful males. This therefore represents the fact that
the British youths are ready to do anything for money, and are able to lose self respect just
for a certain amount of cash. I believe that the media represented youths in this case as a
negative aspect to British youth. The majority of the people living in the UK believe that
young British youths are all part of ‘gangs’ and commit ‘crimes’, in this film we are able to see
long shots of male characters such as Jay and Mooney who are part of a gang with the
leader, Trife.
4. How is youth being represented within
television?
• Throughout the film, Kidulthood, violence is like a casual everyday thing. In one
specific scene, there was a long shot used of jay trying to buy alcohol, however he
has no ID to prove his age, therefore he walks out with the dinks whilst the shop
keeper gets a bat, expecting this behaviour to stop, however jay throws something
at the shop keeper with aggression. These therefore makes me think that the
British Youth have no respect for older and commit crime but get away with it
more often. Following this, another scene that represents violence from the
British Youth is the burger joint. This is when Mooney has onions in his burger,
instead of negotiating for a new burger, or getting a refund, he gets up aggressively
with his “gang” and throws the burger at one of the cooks face whilst she looks
down and hangers her head as if there is nothing she can do. I believe that this
also strengthens the public’s stereotypes against the British Youth and that the
British youth has been represented by the media in a negative way. Furthermore, I
believe that Kidulthood follows the typical Todorov narrative, however it can be
criticised for containing no answers and only magnifying situations in society, if the
film was simply reflecting society then surely it should contain some answers. The
resolution is tragic, as the protagonist dies. We also have the presence of Proppian
characters as Sam being the villain and Trife being the hero, this therefore reduces
the reality of the film as it makes it become typical.
5. How is media represented by the
media? (newspapers)
A stereotype is when individuals or social groups get
stigmatised in a negative way. This therefore involves
the procedure of categorisation as well as being
labelled. A common example of stereotyping in
contemporary society is the label that adults have
towards the British Youth. This Article has a great use
of emotive language that demonstrated the British
Youth as being delinquent young individuals as well
as being highly deviant. An example of emotive
language used within this article is, “Gang
Membership spirals among under -16s.” this is very
effective as it demonstrates the fact that gangs and
committing crime is spreading to underage children
almost like some sort of negative disease. I believe
that Young people commit crime because they want
to fit in within the criminal society and maintain their
statuses.
6.
7.
8. The representation of females is
being referred to as an sex object
which is a negative stereotype The representation of men within the
towards women. media is a positive representation. This is
because they are demonstrated by the
media as being the dominant member as
well as being musculine.
The media has a negative
perspective towards the
Muslims. Muslims are
represented as “Terrorists.”
9. The term representation is the
description or portrayal of someone
of something in a particular way or as
being of a certain nature.
10. A hegemony is a system where one group is dominated by another. The
dominating group achieves its domination by ‘winning’ popular consent
through everyday cultural life.
In media studies terms, this model works by achieving dominance through
media representations of the world. The media ‘tell us’ what to think, what to
believe and how our world ‘should be’.
This works through ideology – a set of ideas which gives a partial or selective
view of reality. For example, the ‘powerful’ rule over the ‘poor’ by promoting
the idea (the ideology) of privilege and wealth belonging exclusively to a select
group of people.
11. KARL MARX makes different statements about ideology at
different points in his career; however, his most straightforward
statement about ideology appears in The German Ideology,
which he wrote with Frederick Engels. Ideology itself represents
the "production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness," all
that "men say, imagine, conceive," and include such things as
"politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc." Ideology
functions as the superstructure of a civilization: the conventions
and culture that make up the dominant ideas of a society.
12. A stereotype is when individuals or social groups
get stigmatised in a negative way. This therefore
involves the procedure of categorisation as well as
being labelled. A common example of stereotyping
in contemporary society is the label that adults
have towards the British Youth. This Article has a
great use of emotive language that demonstrated
the British Youth as being delinquent young
individuals as well as being highly deviant. An
example of emotive language used within this
article is, “Gang Membership spirals among under -
16s.” this is very effective as it demonstrates the
fact that gangs and committing crime is spreading
to underage children almost like some sort of
negative disease. I believe that Young people
commit crime because they want to fit in within
the criminal society and maintain their statuses.
A theorist that will support this view of mine
is, Albert Cohen. Albert Cohen came up with a
theory called status frustration, he believes that
young people commit crime as they have no
status, however, from committing crime they
will be able to gain their status.
13. Gender is when you are known as being a male or a female due to
biological aspects. Females are known to be the caring, emotional and
housewife member within a typical nuclear family. However, males are
known to be the dominant member as well as being masculine. Fish tank
however, opposes the patriarchal societies views of females being
feminine. A female protagonist character within this film, does not fit in
within the feminine ideology that has been held by patriarchal societies, as
she is surrounded by men, therefore their dominant, masculine roles have
influenced her epically.
A moving image that will demonstrate this is the trailer of Fish Tank:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1yMOdjyp0
14. Albert Cohen
• status frustration A concept developed by Albert
Cohen in Delinquent Boys (1956), and used to
explain working-class male delinquency as being
a reaction formation towards middle-class values
of success, as embodied in the school. Delinquent
boys experience status frustration and invert the
middle-class values of the school to create a
delinquent subculture. Cohen's argument forms
part of the anomie and strain traditions of
delinquency and subcultural analysis.
16. What is a Subculture?
A subculture is a cultural subgroup. They are considered 'opposite from the
mainstream culture because of their unique trends. Subcultures are judged by
what they look like, what they wear, where they live, their ethnic background
and religion. Subcultures have distinctive styles of dress, activity and music.
They form when the main stream culture fails to meet the needs of a
particular group of people.
17. Elements of Subculture
• Comparatively exclusive norms and values
• Unique styles and appearance
• Hierarchy of social patterns
• Unique body language
18. The formation of youth subcultures
• The formation of culture usually takes place
when a larger culture fails to meet the needs
of particular group of people.
• These groups off a variety of different types of
norms and values that they
follow, however, they usually depend on the
larger culture for general goals and directions .
19. Relative Theories that relate to Youth
Subcultures:
• Journey from childhood to adulthood – survival in
otherwise hostile world
• Class struggle expressed through use of style –
striving against dominant class, older generation
and those who conform
• Rebellion through use of shock tactics – through
clothes and wear like punk and hip-hop
• Construction of new identity based on
individualism – alienation, loneliness,
meaningless
20. The increase of youth subcultures
• Size of society- Charles Kraft in Anthropology for Christian Witness says: "larger
societies will also develop more sub-groupings. These sub-groupings are
usually referred to as subcultures."
• Rate of change in society-In societies that are experiencing rapid social
change, a smooth transition to adulthood is no longer possible and there is a
strong difference with parent generations.
• Globalization in society-The rate at which cultural objects and ideas are
transmitted in large parts of the world today is a significant factor in the
number of youth subculture groups that are identified. Where a society is
connected to the global village through communication technology, they
experience immediate pressures to unity and division.
• Position of youth in society:People who are marginalised or deprived make
their sense of loss known as they resist to the dominant culture. Where youth
are connected to the centre of the dominant culture they do not need to rebel
or form counter-cultural groups.
• Generational size in society-The size of a generation impacts on youth
subcultures because the overall age structure within a society influences the
social, economical and political make up of age groups. When the number of
youth entering the market place drops, then youth as a portion of the total
labour force also falls. This decline in youth as a market force, both as
consumers and producers will significantly alter the social and political
visibility of youth.
21. The features of youth subcultures
• Features include style/fashion, language, music, rebellious
symbols, identity
• Class/family and youth subcultures
– Working class -- more of gang activity, more emphasis on fashion
– Middle to upper class – more of special interest such as
sports, computers, smart cars, sound system
• Music and youth subcultures
– Groups can be identified with specific music genre: hip
hop, hippies, black metal Subculture
Youth Gangsta Punk Emo
Appearance Baggy trousers Leather Jackets Black hair,
Jewellery Skinny Jeans outfits +
Plain T-Shirt Crazy Hair accessories
Dark make-
up
Music Rap/RnB/Hip Hop Rock Heavy
metal/Rock
Other Drugs Disobedient, mostly Depressed
Weapons male Emotional
Violent
Mostly Male
Graffiti
Slang
22. The types of youth culture
• Stable subcultures –
functional, hierarchical, and age based
• Developing subcultures – those roles that
become more or less important to the lives of
the young people
• Counter cultures – those that contradict or
confront the larger/mainstream culture; also
referred to as oppositional subcultures
23. The variety of youth culture
There are a variety of different types of youth cultures. Such as;
-Achievers
-thinkers
-image awareness
-heavy metal
-hippies
-average teenager
-religious
-punk
-trendy
-rappers
-nerds
-skinhead
-traditionalist
-sporty
