British Youth

By Shahida Khatun 13t

REPRESENTATION OF YOUTHFor this presentation, I shall be discussing about how the British youth is represented within different types of media.

By Shahida Khatun 13T

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.

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.

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.

How is media represented by the media? (newspapers)

Representation &&

Realism

Representation Of Social Groups…

The representation of females is being referred to as an sex object which is a negative stereotype towards women.

The representation of men within the 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.”

What does the term representation mean?

The term representation is the description or portrayal of someone of something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature.

The Hegemonic Model

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.

IdeologyKARL 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.

StereotypesA 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.

Gender and IdeologyGender 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

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.

Youth Subcultures

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.

Elements of Subculture• Comparatively exclusive norms and values• Unique styles and appearance• Hierarchy of social patterns• Unique body language

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 .

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

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.

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 Youth Subculture

Gangsta Punk Emo

Appearance Baggy trousersJewellery

Plain T-Shirt

Leather JacketsSkinny JeansCrazy Hair

Black hair, outfits +

accessoriesDark make-

up

Music Rap/RnB/Hip Hop Rock Heavy metal/Rock

Other DrugsWeaponsViolent

Mostly MaleGraffitiSlang

Disobedient, mostly male

DepressedEmotional

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

The variety of youth cultureThere 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

Reference:

• http://www.writework.com/essay/subculture• http://www.litnotes.co.uk/represent.htm• http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/m

arxism/modules/marxideology.html• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1yMOdj

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