Representation of Youth in the 1960s: A Different Reconstruction

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 trailer for the film 'The Young Ones' paints a very different picture of youth compared to what I have previously seen through my research.

During reports on the conflict between the Mods and Rockers that took place over a bank holiday weekend, the mass media quickly began to dehumanise the youth sub - cultures and refer to them in animalistic terms - they were labelled the 'wild ones'. However, the title of the film advertised in the trailer is called 'The Young Ones' which has much more positive connotations - being young is commonly associated with innocence and purity, which is clearly being demonstrated of the youths in the trailer. As opposed to behaving wildly and causing chaos, the characters seem to be having harmless and innocent fun, as depicted in the upbeat musical numbers and scenes on the beach. They are also portrayed as being very civilised, as they approach the authoritative adult in a polite and respectful manner - this contradicts reports from the media, once again from the bank holiday weekend incidents involving the Mods and the Rockers. The older generation were said to be scared by the action and demeanour of the youths, but the trailer shows the adult and teenagers actually performing together on stage, suggesting there was more harmony and peace between the two than the media reported. Plus, there seemed to be a greater sense of unity and community within the youth in general, as the media in the 1960s exaggerated the extent of the rivalry and animosity between the Mods and Rockers - the depiction of the relationship between the younger generation appeared supportive and collaborative as opposed to detrimental. 

What are Moral Panics?

By Hayley Burn: A Summary

• Discusses Stanley Cohen's work and his coinage of the term 'moral panic'.
• incidents that could have been kept at a local level are amplified by mass media.
• youth cultures in each era are associated with certain types of violence which provoke public reaction and emotion.
• society cannot accept responsibility for its own failures and so they look to find someone who can be incriminated. 
• amplification which takes place through the media's work serves to appeal to the public so they can concur with ready-made opinions about the course of action to be taken with the 'moral barricade' e.g. politicians or editors.
• media's coverage of events such as Mods V Rockers conflicts were exaggerated and distorted.
• majority of people in society share common values of reality and what is acceptable and not acceptable.
• Eldridge explains "Rather than manipulating in the sense of trying to get people to change their views or politics, by reinforcing what is already present in society it gives the public what it wants." [Eldridge 1997: 63]
• Cohen's 'control culture' failed to deal with the problem presented to them, which is why the topic of youth culture has continued to reappear at various points in our society.
• More moral panics will be generated and other, as yet nameless, folk devils will be created. This is not because such developments have an inexorable inner logic, but because our society as present structured will continue to generate problems for some of its members...and then condemn whatever solution these groups find. [Cohen 1987:204]

Past Exam Questions

Here is a collection of past questions from the Collective Identity section of the exam paper. Hopefully, by looking at these you will be reassured that the exam does not hold any great terrors for you.

A good piece of advice to try to make the question more accessible is to replace the term 'group of people' with 'British Youth'. 

For example:

Analyse the ways in which at least one group of people is mediated'

becomes

Analyse the ways in which British Youth are mediated.

Stanley Cohen "Folk Devils and Moral Panics"

Audience Reception Theories

Hypodermic Syringe Theory - 1920s

A model of communications suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The model is rooted in 1930s behaviorism and is largely considered obsolete today.

e.g. Hitler and the Nazis - via propaganda, Hitler managed to convince and brainwash Germany into believing that Jews were a danger/threat to society.



Two Step Flow - 1940s

Ways that most people form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders, who in turn are influenced by the mass media. So according to this model, ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population.





Uses and Gratifications - 1960s

• The audience is active and its media use is goal oriented
• The initiative in linking need gratification to a specific medium choice rests with the audience member
• The media compete with other resources for need satisfaction
• People have enough self-awareness of their media use, interests, and motives to be able to provide researchers with an accurate picture of that use.
• Value judgments of media content can only be assessed by the audience.

Stanley Cohen: Folk Devils and Moral Panics

A leading writer on Criminology and Sociology, Cohen is credited with coining the term moral panic in his 1972 study (Folk Devils and Moral Panics) of the popular UK media and social reaction to the Mods and Rockers phenomenon of the 1960s.







Cohen suggests the media overreact to an aspect of behaviour which may be seen as a challenge to existing social norms. However, the media response and representation of that behaviour actually helps to define it, communicate it and portrays it as a model for outsiders to observe and adopt. So the moral panic by society represented in the media arguably fuels further socially unacceptable behaviour.

Thirty years ago, he created the term "moral panic," which is used to summarize the disproportional, gripping fear that engulfs a society in the face of a moral dilemma so deep it could upend the social. Moral panic, Cohen taught us, is the dance of the devil that stirs within us in the face of demonic, demagogic problem.

Mods, Rockers and Bank Holiday Mayhem - Documentary

Alternative Viewpoints

The articles Mythbusters and Brighton 1964, I Was There challenge the way in which the Mods and Rockers youth sub - cultures were portrayed and constructed in contemporary newspaper reports. 

Instead of highlighting or depicting the youths that were involved in the events that took place in 1964 as unruly, violent or dangerous, Mythbusters details the extreme exaggeration to which they believe the events were heightened. The article reads, "Easter weekend 1964 was the wettest on record" - Scootering magazine clearly believes that this factor was more significant than the "frenzy" the contemporary media reported the incident as. The article also suggests that the Mods and Rockers were not the perpetrators behind the incident and had very little involvement, stating, "One comment pointed out that it was those NOT arriving at the seaside resorts on two wheels who were most responsible for being involved in any clashes." Scootering suggests that although the Mods and Rockers were not entirely blameless, the majority of the responsibility should be rightfully shifted onto others.

Brighton 1964, I Was There, is an interview with Freddie Freeman who was present during the infamous bank holiday weekend in Brighton. His account of the events that took place are also extremely conflicting with the contemporary reports from newspapers such as the Daily Sketch and the Daily Mirror - a lot of the language that features in those articles depict the youths as animalistic and violent. Freeman offers a different perspective of the events, although admitting "It must have been a bit scary for the older generation". However, he also implies that their actions were misinterpreted for acts of aggression, "...hundreds of Mods running, seemingly rampaging across the beach." Freeman also downplays and claims the destruction and damaged caused during the weekend was fairly limited, "A few stones were thrown, the odd minor scuffle..." Plus, Freeman says that the reason he decided to go was out of "curiosity" which shows that there were no ill intentions, which was most likely the cast for the majority of attendees that day. This indicates that the contemporary reports painted the Mods and Rockers in an extremely negative light and exaggerated the effects of their actions.

The articles Mythbusters and Brighton 1964, I Was There, are more likely to be reliable than the contemporary reports. Contemporary reports' aim was to sell newspapers, which was only achievable if the headlines they published were dramatic and exaggerated. Plus, first hand accounts of the incidents were rarely published, and the images that were printed depicted the youths as harmful and out of control. On the other hand, the articles published in Scootering magazine could also be considered as less than reliable - Mods were infamous for using Scooters as a form of transportation and eventually became a fashion statement for them. Scootering magazine would most likely want to support the sub - culture who popularised Scooters. However, the public would most likely have paid attention to the reports that were perpetuated by the media rather than a first hand account; newspaper reports are more frequent and accessible to the public.

Deviance amplification spiral - is a media hype phenomenon defined by media critics as a cycle of increasing numbers of reports on a category of antisocial behaviour or some other "undesirable" event, leading to a moral panic.

How could the reporting of the events on the south coast as seen as a DAS?
The reporting of the events on the south coast could be seen as a DAS, as although certain aspects of the Mods and Rockers behaviour could be considered as deviant, the media amplified and exaggerated the events which subsequently influenced the public's perception of the youth sub - cultures. 

Mods and Rockers and the Media

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

The sub - heading from the Daily Sketch reads, "Beach crowds take cover from battling Mods and Rockers". The choice of language that the media uses to portray this event is very interesting and creates visually stimulating images in the readers' mind. The Mods and Rockers were described to have been "battling" - the term battling has connotations of catastrophic wars and it also implies that the two sub cultures were heavily armed with lethal weapons such as swords; the nature of the conflict seems to have been greatly exaggerated. In addition, it reads that the crowds were forced to "take cover". Immediately, a horrifying image is inserted into the audience's mind of people cowering and hiding in unsafe areas to avoid the events that were taking place. The headline for the Daily Sketch reads "WILDEST ONES YET" - the use of the superlative "wildest" places extra emphasis and exaggeration in regards to the behaviour of the sub - cultures. The term "wildest" also has animalistic connotations which implies that the actions of the Mods and Rockers were uncontrollable and feral. The Mods and Rockers are in some way dehumanised by this label, and they are also referred to as "ones", therefore decreasing the value of their individuality and consequently assuming that all people who consider themselves as a Mod or a Rocker are dangerous and erratic. The Daily Sketch's use of the word "yet" can be interpreted to imply that they believe the fighting is not over and there will be further incidents of violence. However, in the article, there is a slight contradiction in their representation of the youths, as they claim that a 50 year old woman "routed 200 teenage youths and girls - with a mop". This suggests that the Mods and Rockers were not very aggressive in their pursuit for trouble and were indeed not a danger if they could be deterred by an elderly woman. Interestingly, the article separates the teenage youths from girls as there is not a collective term for them. The Daily Sketch could be attempting to alert their readers to the vast scope of the violence if even girls involved themselves, as women during the 60's were expected to act and behave demurely. "Youths" was a term that was only really applicable to boys. Statistics also feature heavily in the article such as "75 rioting teenagers", "20 youths were taken to police headquarters" and "200 teenagers smashed windows" to highlight the number of participants that joined in with the violence. Plus, the statistic is always followed with the specific age group such as "teenagers" and "youths" to depict that they were the sole perpetrators and deserve all of the blame. The image that accompanied the article shows two Mods holding deck chairs over their heads, ready to throw the objects over the promenade and onto the beach; two Rockers are seen trying to escape the rioting and uncouth Mods. The purpose of the image was to represent the youths as being dangerous and careless - although their enemy was each other, the Mods and Rockers risked the safety of other people. In three of the other newspaper articles or headlines, the sub - cultures are labelled the "wild ones"which shows how quickly a label can be adopted and perpetuated amongst the media and eventually the public. The Daily Mirror's sub heading reads "Scooter gang 'beats up' Clacton". The Mods are called a "scooter gang" - therefore, the public's perception of somebody riding a scooter would change dramatically, as they would most likely now associate someone on a scooter as a potential threat to them. The media also seems to personify Clacton if the gangs can 'beat up' the town; through this intentional and careful language choice, the media is attempting to create more victims of the conflict and contrasts a violent act with a beautiful seaside town. The Daily Mirror also include an image in their report - a youth is standing with presumably a police officer, who has a large Alsatian by his side. The policeman should automatically have substantial power of the youth due to his authoritative and high powered job. However, the presence of the Alsatian indicates and heightens the potential danger of the situation - readers will have believe that the Mods and Rockers are a danger and threat if extra precautions are took to wrangle their behaviour and keep them under control. Through careful language choices and deliberate emotive images, the readers and consumers of media would have truly thought that the Mods and Rockers and their rivalry were extremely dangerous, and associated them as a threat and symbol of violence. 

Mod Subculture

What is a mod?

Mod is a 1960's British youth subculture. The focus and emphasis of the sub-culture was on music and fashion, with mod being the clipped form of the word "modern", or "modernists". They were given this term because they listened to modern jazz - it was a term coined not by themselves, but others.

What is the historical context of the Mod?

As previously stated, Mods are a subculture that were prominent within the 1960's. However, in the late 1950's, young and stylish men who listened to modern jazz music were coined modernists, which is where the label originated from. By 1960, the Mods had attained minor cult status, but had not yet been discovered by the media, the movement having only a few thousand adherents who were scattered throughout London. Two key factors are believed to have been reasonable for transforming them into the massive army they would soon become: affluence and education. As wages generally improved after the war, working-class families became much better off and were no longer relying on their children to help support the family, as had been tradition. Consequently, youth became financially independent, with a large disposable income and suddenly nowhere to spend it. This was especially true of inner-city youth. According to Dick Hebdige, 1963 saw that the mod subculture had begun to find symbols that they were associated and identified with. However, just three years later in 1966, the mod scene was in sharp decline which is theorised to be because of its increasing commerciality and loss of vitality. As the subculture continued to become less prominent, there was also an argument that the original mods were reaching the age where they were getting married and having children, which resulted in the loss of time and money that could be spent on leisurely activities and past-times such as record shopping and scooter rallies.

What are the "fashions, mannerisms and music" that "signal...membership" of this youth subculture?

Fashion

Paul Jobling and David Crowley called the mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults who lived in metropolitan London or the new towns of the south.

The Royal Air Force roundel became a symbol of mod culture, and was used within fashion and other mediums:

The film Quadrophenia is a 1979 British film that details the events that occurred between the Mods and the Rockers on Brighton beach in 1964. The "Q" in Quadrophenia is designed to look like the roundel, and the text's colour is navy, like the outer circle of the roundel. The tag line is written in red, like the inner circle of the roundel. This highlights the association between the symbol and the Mods.

For example, this Vespa has a sticker of the roundel on its side. Plus, the bag attached to the Vespa is also the roundel.

Mods were also identifiable by their mode of transportation, as Vespas and Lambrettas became a fashion accessory for them. They usually preferred Italians scooters because their scooters are clean lined, curve shapes as well as gleaming chrome. These models also had the advantage of being less oily than motorbikes which meant that damage to the Mods' immaculate suits and dresses was spared. For the young mods of that time, Italian scooters were the "representation of continental style & a way to escape the working-class row houses of their upbringing". These youngsters even painted their scooters in “two-tone and candy flake and over accessorized their scooters with luggage racks, crash bars, and scores of mirrors as well as fog lights. Moreover, the young mods also put their names on the small windscreen. This makes their scooters different from others. Owning a Vespa or a Lambretta signalled the membership of this particular subculture. 

Lambretta.

Male mods adopted a smooth and sophisticated look that included tailored suits with narrow lapels (sometimes made of mohair), thin ties, button-down collar shirts, wool or cashmere jumpers (crewneck or V-neck), Chelsea or Beatle boots, loafers, Clarks desert boots, bowling shoes, and hairstyles that imitated the look of French Nouvelle Vague film actors.

Beatle boots.

However, some mods went against gender stereotypes and wore eye-shadow, eye-pencil or even lipstick.

The original and enduring mod style is a slim-fitting dark coloured suit, worn with a lighter coloured shirt and thin, dark tie, along with a pair of dark shoes. Of course this is a style that can be worn by many a person walking along the street but the beauty is in the details. Mods usually prefer a two-tonic coloured suit, made of a light material and fronted by three buttons (with the bottom button being left undone). The jacket has a breast pocket which can be adorned with a handkerchief in a variety of styles. The shirt is usually a button down with the most popular make being the ‘Ben Sherman’ incorporating a small button at the back of the collar. This style was reciprocated by mods of the early 80’s with the only modification being that the trousers had became narrower and were often short enough to show the dreaded white socks that were initially popular at the time.

 Music

Early mods listened to the "sophisticated smoother modern jazz" - musicians included Dave Brubeck and the Modern Jazz Quartet. In addition, they would listen to American R&B.

The mods were also influenced and listened to artists such as The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds. Particularly, mods loved to listen to bands such as The Who, who were specifically more mod - orientated. Interestingly, The Who's changed their name to The High Numbers to appeal and suit to the mod market. It was swiftly changed back. 

Despite The Beatles styling and fashion looking very like mod fashion, their music was never popular among mods as opposed to British R&B. 

Mannerisms

Mods would often have a lot of free leisurely time, which they would spend clubbing, dancing and shopping. The original mods gathered at all-night clubs such as The Flamingo and The Marquee in London to hear the latest records and show off their dance moves. As the mod subculture spread across the United Kingdom, other clubs became popular, including Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester. 

To fuel the all-night dances at clubs like these, mods took amphetamines for recreational use. Newspaper reports described dancers emerging from clubs at 5 a.m. with dilated pupils. Some mods consumed a combined amphetamine/barbiturate called Drinamyl, which was nicknamed "purple hearts".

INTERESTING AND USEFUL WEBSITES:

http://www.modyourspace.com/description-mod-style.html

http://www.gbacg.org/costume-resources/original/articles/mods.pdf

http://www.themodgeneration.co.uk/2009/04/mod-style.html

What is 'Collective Identity'?

Youth Culture - |ntroduction

Noun 1. youth subculture - a minority youth culture whose distinctiveness depended largely on the social class and ethnic background of its members; often characterized by its adoption of a particular music genre

The meaning, formation and behaviour of youth cultures have been the subject of research since the 1930s. In August 2011, England witnessed a number of ‘youth’ riots in several London Boroughs, Birmingham and Bristol.

Click here to read an article from 1999 detailing youth culture. The article was published in The Guardian. Within the piece, a timeline detailing the evolution and progression of youth culture over the decades: 

Timeline
1929 Borstals open as special prisons for adolescents.
1947 School-leaving age raised to 15. 
1953 The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando. ('What're you rebelling against?' Brando replies: 'What've you got?') First reportings of teds in the UK media. 
1957 Elvis scores his first UK number 1 with 'All Shook Up'. First UK youth TV broadcast, Six-Five Special, on national TV. 
1959 Mark Abrams's The Teenage Consumer outlines the potential of youth as a new consumer group. 
1967 Radio 1 launched. 
1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. 
1977 The Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen charts at number two in Silver Jubilee week. 
1981 Inner-city youth/race riots in Brixton and Toxteth. 
1989 First recorded UK ecstasy-related death: Clare Leighton in Manchester's Hacienda club.
1994 Criminal Justice Act targets travellers, festivals and raves.

Contrastingly, I found an article that was published in 2011 surrounding youth culture. However, the biggest difference between the two articles is the emphasis on social media in the 2011 article, with the inclusion of modern and recently coined terms to label youths such as "hipster". Read the article here.

Exam Preparation

In A Nutshell 

The purpose of the exam is to assess your knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, through your understanding of one contemporary media issue and your ability to evaluate your own practical work in reflective and theoretical ways. 

Logistics

The examination is two hours. 

You will be required to answer two compulsory questions on your own production work, and one question from a choice of six topic areas. 

The unit is marked out of a total of 100, with the two questions on production work marked out of 25 each, and the media theory question marked out of 50. 

Section A : Theoretical Evaluation of production

Section B : Contemporary Media Issues (Media and Collective Identity)

During Term 3 we will be learning about the contemporary media issue of COLLECTIVE IDENTITY in preparation for Section B of the exam.

During Term 4 we will be preparing for Section A of the exam in which you will be evaluating your own completed production work.

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' in the media 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 and will develop a critically informed point of view on how British Youth is represented.

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 collective identity of British Youth.

Contemporary – examples from no more than five years before the examination. That is, in our case, from no earlier than 2010.

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.