Verran Youth Essay

Introduction

·      Over the past 100 years, the media have been a big influence whilst mediating the representations and stereotypes for youth. Overall I would suggest that the media has had a negative effect to the portrayal of youth as they have pin pointed the negatives in order to sell their media products in forms of stories, films and magazines. I will be discussing this with reference to media theorists such as; Andrew Medhurst (1998), Bill Osgerby (1998), Dick Hebdige (1988), Stanley Hall (1904), Cohen (1972) and Gauntlet (2002) so I can use their theories and opinions to create a final decision on whether or not the use of media to portray youth is positive or negative.

War years 

In the war years, teenagers were represented with respect and shown to be brave and heroic. I think personally they were positively shown in the media so that other teens would notice that being involved in the war makes you a respected member of society especially because a lot of people would turn to the newspapers for information on the country so to see something that you’re involved in must have felt like an honour. An example of a headline that supports my arguments concerning the positive representation of youth is; "Because victory is nearer, our men do not slacken in their efforts," (20th August 1944, Sunday Pictorial). This supports the case of positive representations as it describes young males as men and this respectful flattery will encourage other young men to sign up and risk their lives. These types of representations disrupt the Hall (1904) and Hebdige (1988) theories, as youths are not shown to be “rebellious trouble makers going through a time of storm and stress”. However war film “The Way Ahead” (1944) kind of subverts the representations given by the newspapers as part of the film shows dialogue between 3 males, two of which are describing how easy the young troops have it now as they are “too scared to get their boots wet” which gives a negative portrayal to the youths as they aren’t as brave as the older generations and don’t work as hard. To get a good understanding I also watched “In Which We Serve” (1942), this film trailer mainly focused on the relationships the young soldier had whilst going into the war. In the trailer he seemed to be shown as “fun” which could support Hebdige (1988) theory. Overall I think the representations of youth during the war years were positive as they were shown to step up and become men and fight in the war, where they risked their lives in order to protect their country. Nearly every article in the media portrayed youth to be positive apart from a few representations in which they were compared to the older generations who were shown to be stronger and braver.

1950’s 

In the early years of the 1950’s the media were still portraying youth in a positive way as they were shown to be brave heroes from the end of the war as an act of respect. The term ‘teenagers’ also appeared therefore the first sub group was created, part of this group were names such as the ‘Teddy boys’ described to wear Edwardian suits and portrayed with“Flick knives, dance music and Edwardian suits,” (Daily Mirror, 1953). This representation supports Stanley Hall’s (1904) theory that they are “Violent, nasty criminals.” Which is one of the first times the media have shown teenagers of the 1950’s in a bad way therefore the older generations started to become afraid of what once were the heroes of the country.

Films also showed ‘teenagers’ in a negative way as the film ‘The Blue Lamp’ (1952) had the main protagonist armed with a revolver and shown to kill an up standing police officer. It was becoming an apparent theme for media surfaces to portray youth in a negative way as they highlighted the violent and criminalized mannerisms described by Hall (1904). It also supports Dick Hebdige’s (1988) theory that youth are ‘trouble’ because the main storyline is about youth being disruptive.

1960's

The 1960’s gave Hippies the opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions in a number of different ways, including; how they dressed, what music they listened to and how they danced. However the representations of youth in the 60's were quite negative. As we know with all of the eras youth are divided into subgroups, the main ones in this era being; Hippies, Mods and rockers. From all of these none are represented kindly within the media, hippies were known to be drug taking disruptive individuals who caused trouble in society. A headline to support this would be "Hippies invade Tulip festival"(The Daily Mail, 1967) This tells us that they weren't invited to festivals so they had to invade them. 

In the 1960's hippies were also known for being highly involved in the drug culture/community which was brought to the attention of society through newspapers such as the (The Atlantic, September 1967) Who wrote “Anybody who was anybody among hippies had been arrested for something, or so he said—for "possession of drugs”, for "contributing" (to the delinquency of a minor), for panhandling, for obstructing the sidewalk, and if for nothing else, for "resisting arrest”. Like Medhurst (1997) said "The media is controlled by middle aged white males" therefore other age and social groups would be the main focus within the media.

1970's

The representations of youth in the 1970’s were extremely negative. The hippies were a low-key sub group fading out from the previous decade however the main group were the punks. This group were known to be extremely violent and heavily into drugs. The media focused on their over the top fashion sense which included massive Mohicans, piercings and black jackets, this press coverage clearly fits the theory of; “They’re awful because they’re not like us” (Medhurst 1998). The coverage of youths in this decade also fits (Cohen’s 1972) theory as films such as “A clockwork Orange” and newspaper coverage of punks created various representations that caused moral panic. In the case of the Clockwork Orange the film is about a group of youths who commit various violent crimes until the police catches their leader and is sent for re-conditioning. This film created a moral panic because a copycat crime occurred which resulted the film being banned in the UK. "The clockwork orange" film supports every negative representation theory about youth as the film chronicles the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via controversial psychological conditioning. In 1904 Stanley Hall described youth as "violent, drug taking criminals that seek excitement", this is highly supported through this film because the gang, going by the name of the "Droogs" meaning buddies in russian are shown to seek excitement and satisfaction from committing horrific crimes and causing distress to the older generations. In the opening of the film they are shown to beat an old drunk man to death on the streets. As they were doing it the older man shouts "There is no law and order and the young are getting to the old" This also goes with some of the representations given by the older generation in the 1970's as they were becoming afraid of what once were the nations war heroes. Personally I do not think that the film represents young people of the 1970's correctly as although some of the punks were violent, they weren't as violent as they are portrayed in this film. This gang is shown to be overly aggressive and improperly depicts youth as the negative representations portrayed them. Regarding newspapers, “DIRTY, DANGEROUS & DESTITUTE” (The Daily Mail 1974) in his article it explain how at one point it would have been hard to walk through Hyde park without tripping over hypodermic needles and having to fight off the hookers. This shows the youth to be negative because according to the papers they had no sense of respect for themselves or others. Regarding representation theories, the representations of youths in films and newspapers link closely to Stanley Hall’s 1904 theory regarding youths being portrayed as drug taking, violent criminals. Personally I think that the media were reporting on how the youths really were in the 1970’s however, I do think that they used the “Hypodermic needle” and only focused on the negative stories whilst creating a representation of youth within the media.

1990's 

The 90's was a very negative time for the youths and it wouldn't have been missed by society because a new found craze was the internet. People started buying computers for their house because they could access the internet and catch up on the news. A main theme within the news was the teens of the 1990's being in the sub groups of either goths, grunge or ravers. Some of the main headlines include "Riot police attacked at acid party" (The Daily Mail, 1992). This depicts youth as "violent criminals" which is how (Stanley Hall, 1904) described youth to be. Although this is true for some of the ravers, I don't think that it will be for all of them because some ravers just wanted to be there to have fun and although they were their to take drugs they wanted some peace and happiness not trouble.
Another headline that negatively portrays youth is from (The sun, 1994) which said "Spaced out" it also says underneath that 11,000 youngsters go drug crazy at Britain's biggest ever acid party. Again this is a really negative representation of youth however society weren't shocked at this because Stanley Hall also said in 1904 that youth were drug taking juveniles. As well as the negative representations given to youth by the newspapers, films of this decade also portrayed youth as a bad age group. "Trainspotting" (1996) was a film that focused on the drug life of Edinburgh and how the life of teens in the 90's was made up of sex, drugs and violence which is how (Stanley Hall, 1904) described the youths as a whole. I do partially agree with this statement because some youths were very involved in this lifestyle, however not every teen liked this so I don't think Hall can brand the whole sub group of youth with the same bad name. Around this time the lead singer of Nirvana and "king of grunge" Kurt Cobain commits suicide aged 27 therefore it set a sense of moral panic as the main focus of the 90's were negative stories like death, violence and drugs rather than the more positive things that happened such as the internet, mobile phones and more television programmes becoming available. This highlights the theory that the media pin points the negatives in order to sell stories and make money form bad events. As stated by the marxist group who said that the media is controlled by upper class, middle aged white males therefore the main focus within the media would be the polar opposite to that as they have the power over youth and any one out of the upper class middle aged group. They would have targeted them within the media because like (Medhurst, 1998) stated "They're awful because they're not like us".

2000's - present day

Throughout the contemporary society of the noughties and the tens there were many subgroups but the main ones that were the most prominent have been; emo, chav/roadman and hipster. This has been reflected through the media on many social platforms. Technological advances has had a mixed effect on the portrayal of youth, some of the main social media platform started quite late into the decade. The first being MySpace in 2003, then Facebook and YouTube in 2004, Bebo in 2005, twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010 and then the last one to launch was Snap chat in 2011. This gave youth an opportunity to portray themselves in a more respected manner which supports Gauntlett’s 2008 theory that “Technological advances meant anyone can become a producer of media text” however youth abused this opportunity and now people were able to write about anything on social media and it would be seen my millions. Therefore when people started uploading half naked images and pictures of them drinking alcohol and being violent, youth automatically gained a negative representation. This decade also became known for online bullying as a result of the newly found power they had because of the social media sites. It became that powerful that online bullying in some cases led to the victims committing suicide, an example of this was; “Teen kills himself over Skype blackmail” (The Daily Mail, August 2013)     This was just one of the many stories about this type of bullying and even though it was reported on and somewhat acted on, there are still a lot of cases of cyber bullying with the social media. Teenagers also used social media in order to invite their friends to house parties however in some circumstances this turned badly as the post didn’t go just to friends, it went out to anyone who was a friend with the people who interacted with the post. Therefore what started as a small party ended up being a massive gathering that spiraled out of control.

The newspaper representations of youth were very negative because teens were depicted as "drug taking, violent criminals" (Hall, 1904) who represented themselves on social media through pictures which supported these theories, however not every teen used media platforms in a negative way therefore the stereotype can't be applied to everyone. Another way youths were represented to the public were through movies. In this decade the main films between 2000-2011 that represented youths within the films were "Billy Elliot" (2000), "Harry Potter" (2001-2011) and "The inbetweeners" (2011). In these films the main protagonist(s) are shown to either support or disrupt the media theories put forward by various theorists over the decades. The first film "Billy Elliot" although set in the 1980's was released in 2000 featured a teenage boy who finds him dream and doesn't stop until he gets to the top, this film breaks every stereotype given to youths because he isn't show to take drugs, drink alcohol, act in a violent manner or have a high sex drive. Therefore Stanley Hall's (1904) theory can't be applied to this film, his dream is to be a male ballet dancer as a result he gets a lot of abuse because this reverts the typical given stereotype of a male sport, this was a big part of the film because "Medhurst" (1998) said that people don't like anything other than the given "norm" so "They're awful because they're not like us" could be easily applied to this film. This film is a very positive reflection of teenage males which is a strong contest from the film released in 2011 called "The Inbetweeners" which the storyline features a group of males who've just finished college and to celebrate they go on a "lads holiday" to Malia. This supports the theories about reckless teens causing trouble, however in the film they are not shown to get into loads of fights or take drugs although they do drink alcohol and have sex. This means that Medhurst's theory only loosely fits this film.

Concluding my studies of how youth have been portrayed within the media over the past 100 years, I have seen a reoccurring pattern that other than the war years the media have always shown teenagers to be "violent, drug taking people with criminalistic characteristics" which is how (Hall, 1904) described them within his theory. I also think that the main reason that the younger generation have been targeted is because that the media is mainly created and distributed by middle aged white males therefore the focus will be on the other minorities and social groups because "they're awful because they're not like us" (Medurst, 1998) Magazines and other media platforms have used the negative stories in order to make profit by selling and sharing these with the world.