The representation of youth and youth culture in media is commonly exaggerated, misleading and stereotypical. It is for these reasons as to why there is constant conflict between how youth perceive themselves and how others perceive them. The media are a powerful source and have the ability to sway views, opinions and create a hegemonic ideology within society. Michel Foucaults theory relates to this as his theory suggests that our identity mediates as we grow older and create collective identities by integrating with other people. However he believes it is also limited because stereotypical assumptions are made by others, restricting our identity.
It is simple to say that youth are represented in a negative light (especially in the Media realm). Spectators, such as myself are often marginalised on the sidelines and bombarded with mixed messages. To understand how youth are represented goes beyond the representation presented to us in news headlines. If we consider newspapers such as tabloids, we can say that they are exaggerated and made to seem worse than the situation actually is, as that’s what sells, and profit is the aim for any business. During the London riots, The Daily Mirrors front page said “Yob Rule” and gave the youth a name whereby most newspapers and articles continue to use whenever they refer to the youth doing anything destructive. The term ‘Yob’ immediately brings a negative feel towards the youth making them look worse than they actually are via the use of such bias words and phrases. It is because of such powerful media that makes it almost impossible to change the perspective of youth as this is just a one sided view, disregarding the positive aspects of them as it creates the buzz in which they desire for, and therefore constructing their identity. Certainly, the perception and the representation are very different to half a century ago. Jacques Lacan says ‘we try to gain an understanding of ourselves by looking through a mirror’, - the Media act as our mirror and we ‘copy’ what we see. So if the media continue to project the youth as rebellious, careless and in a negative light then it comes to no surprise if we replicate what we see.
The stereotype of drugs, sex and violence is a 21st century view which is mirrored in current Media texts particularly films. For example if we consider Kidulthood, a y2k film by Noel Clarke, it contains a great amount of the stereotypes mentioned, exaggerated for entertainment purposes. The youth are presented to the viewers as rebellious, up to no good and dress in a similar way to which the stereotype follows (hoodies , caps and tracksuits) creating moral panic as those watching, (adults in particular) will be under the assumption that everyone who follows that clothing is just like the characters in the films. This view of the youth has been present for a long time. For example if we consider an older film, Rebel Without A Cause (RWAC, 1955), the protagonist, James Dean conforms to what was expected of a disobedient teenager for that time period. Within the first few minutes of the film opening we sense his rebelliousness as he is in a police station, drunk. Furthermore, he disobeys his parents, and gets into arguments and fights. Overtime, the level of anarchy has increased as in society, we are desensitised to what we see as it doesn’t shock us to hear about youth involved with drugs, sex and violence because we are so used to it, but would have had a different reaction during a previous era. The contrast between youth and youth culture which enables us to see how complex representations can be certainly in current media texts on the market. Many film characters mark a clear contrast between press representations and misrepresentations.
There is a common thread throughout Media texts, violent words such as ‘thugs’ and ‘yobs’ were used in articles online, with the use of web 2.0 to portray the youth this way. This relates to Strinati’s post modernism as our reality is constructed and led by the mass media. Articles about the London Riots were viral, one of which read “I predict a rioter” containing a description of a stereotypical teenager. The audience who read the article decode (Stuart Hall) the messages in the way they see fit. For example, youth will feel victimised, especially those who do not partake in such anarchy which may lead them to express their opinions online (web 2.0) via Facebook and Twitter, updating statuses and profiles (Jenkins), thus constructing their identity collectively.
The arrival of ‘the teenager’ came after the war and was forced into the public eye (though only shortly). Subcultures and tribes were derived from post war depression as youths wanted to catch attention. Such films as ‘The Wild One’ represent the emerging awareness adults had about the fear of youth and youth destruction. The characters in these films can be seen to be uncontrollable and out of control to society.
With the negativity surrounding youth, is there any hope for the future? The evolution of such films as Fish Tank and Shank only enhance and create further opposition. Shank is set in 2015 and gives us an assumption of what to expect, which isn’t bright or blissful. Unfortunately due to the mass media dominating our views, it will be almost impossible for them to reflect youth in the positive light in which we all wish to see in the near future.
