London Riots Coverage - SKY News

How Media Demonises Teenagers

CLICK HERE to read an interesting article from The Independent concerning the media's portrayal of teenagers in the UK. 

The use of the word 'demonise' is interesting in itself if we remember that Stan Cohen used the term 'folk devils' when reflecting on the portrayal of teenagers following the Clacton / Brighton fights in 1964. There seems a clear association between young people and language connoting evil.

Fun - Loving Youth

TV, The Inbetweeners: The Inbetweeners centres around four boys in the sixth form - Simon, Will, Neil and Jay (l-r). Each of them have very different personalities. Simon is obsessed with his childhood friend, Carly, who he continuously tries to impress. Will is extremely studious, awkward and usually the voice of reason during his friends antics. Neil is dim and not at all intelligent whilst Jay is a compulsive liar, failing to convince his friends, with the exception of Neil, of his wild and fanatic tales. The four find themselves in many different scenarios, such as attempting to gate-crash parties and being stranded during a boat trip. However, their behaviour does not have a negative effect upon society and they are not considered troublesome - their actions are only potentially harmful and embarrassing to themselves. Their actions drive the humour of the TV show.

Zoella - Zoella is a British Vlogger and internet personality. She began vlogging in 2009 and continues to. Her videos mainly consist of detailing fashion and beauty hauls and allows her viewers an insight into her life. The videos that she produces are fun and light hearted, with as previously mentioned, being focused on fashion related segments. In addition, she also produces video which gives her viewers advice on how to deal with anxiety issues and she is widely considered a positive role model. Below is a video of Zoella's:

Youth have been more attached and affiliated with labels such as being obsessed with social media and using the internet. Many teenagers have several modes of social media, including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. They are used to inform their followers/friends of their lives, and they are given an opportunity to profess or share any opinion they wish. Teens often post 'selfies' or statuses depicting exciting events in their lives - the posts usually detail social events and teenagers are subsequently portrayed as fun - loving. Social media is also used for other purposes - many teenagers run 'fan accounts' dedicated to their favorite celebrity or book/film series. Tumblr is an extremely popular social media site where people can make and post gifs or memes.

However, completing this research was quite difficult, as there are not many examples of teenagers being portrayed as fun - loving, as the majority of headlines or other media sources depicted them as troublesome, violent and misbehaving.

Youth as Trouble

TV - Belle Dingle from Emmerdale: Belle is depicted as a troublesome youth. She was sent to a youth detention centre after accidentally killing her best friend, Gemma. During an argument, Belle pushed Gemma who fell and hit her head on a rock, she died days later in hospital from brain damage. Before the conflict, Belle was extremely troublesome, ranging from underage drinking to maliciously spreading personal information. After her time in the detention centre, Belle continued to cause trouble. She broke into a and stole an old lady's pension and caused chaos and mess in the village's local shop. However, her startling behaviour is due to a mental illness which she developed as a side effect of her guilt over her best friend's murder. The boy pictured with her, Lachlan, is also a troublesome youth. He purchases 'illegal highs' online and follows Belle around the village, secretly taking photos of her.

Media, Newspapers - DAD AT 13: The subject of this news story is barely a teenager but is already a father to a young child. This depicts youth as completely irresponsible and careless with no regards and thought for anybody else. The situation of a person as young as 13 years old having a child is completely inappropriate and paints a negative portrait of modern youth. 

Media, Newspapers - Teenage party mob clashes with police: This portrays youth as fighting and ignorant against authority. They are seen as disobedient and unwilling to cooperate with those who enforce the law. Plus, they are also highlighted to be unruly and have to be controlled and made aware of their limitations by the police.

TV - Misfits: Misfits follows five delinquents on community service who are caught outside during a supernatural thunder storm and who acquire special abilities. Sub plots in the series reveal perhaps why the youths are troubled, as some of them have unhappy home lives. The characters come into conflict with older figures, such as their probation officer. The fact that the young characters were completing community service in the first place suggests that they were troublesome and not law - abiding.

Film - Harry Brown: The film stars Michael Caine as Harry, an elderly man living in a council estate that is ruled by violent gangs. The gangs all consist of youths. Harry kills several gang members in self defence, after finding out that the gang killed his best friend, Len. The gangs openly deal drugs, and Harry even witnesses a youth sexually abusing a young girl who has overdosed. The film depicts youth as violent and aggressive, murdering to intimidate and engaging in other criminal activity to assert power and dominance.

Media - Newspaper, British youths are 'the most unpleasant and violent in the world': Damning verdict of writer as globe reacts to riots: The writer making this statement is placing the whole blame of the damage caused in the London riots solely on the British youth. This headline encapsulates the media's portrayal and attitude toward British youth, as many elements of the media portray them as 'unpleasant' and 'violent'..

Dick Hebdige "Hiding In The Light"

I have previously introduced you to Dick Hebdige. We talked about his 1979 book titled 'Subculture - the Meaning of Style' and I gave you the quotation below as one you should learn:

"Members of  a subculture often subject their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, music and mannerisms" - Hebdige (1979)

Hebdige also wrote a book called 'Hiding in the Light' which was published in 1988. It is here that he discussed the concept of youth being represented as either a threat or a non-threat. 

The first chapter of this book opens as below:

Hebdige's hypothesis here is that society in general (through the media) are only concerned in representing youth when there is something negative to say. He discusses the birth of the concept of the 'teenager' and goes on to assess the effect of consumerism and the move from a one-dimensional representation of youth, to a two-dimensional representation of "youth as trouble, youth as fun". He writes that teenagers are seen as either "troublesome youth" or "fun-loving youth."

Hebdige sees 'youth as trouble' as being a political representation whereas 'youth as fun is commercially driven.

So, when you look at representations of British Youth Culture in the past can you see evidence to support Hebdige's thoughts? You can read 'Hiding in the Light' in full by CLICKING HERE.

Thinking of contemporary media, that is to say the media from 2010 onwards, is there evidence to support Hebdige's assertion that British Youth are portrayed as either:

"Troublesome youth"

or,

"Fun-loving youth"

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]