Media Magazine
References;
1) In
most of the tabloid media coverage, the rioters were repeatedly identified as young people. These were the ‘feral youths,’ the
‘hoodies’ and the ‘yobs.’
2) 40%
of newspaper articles featuring young people focused on violence, crime or
anti-social behaviour – Brunel university during 2006 FEARS
3) There
were more negative than positive stories about teenagers (42% versus 13%) à described
as yobs, thugs, sick farer, hoodies, heartless, evil scums.
4) ‘
A condition, episode, person or group of people emerges to become defined as a
threat to social values’ moral panic.
5) The
typical representation of contemporary young people in Britain is the iconic
image of the ‘chav’
6) A recent national survey showed that
young people are using the internet mainly for studying/ homework (73%) email
(59%), games (38%), chat sites (32%) showing positive representations
7) Media Magazine - Opportunities and
Dangers on-line - The popular opposition between 'virtual' and 'real'
communication is misleading: Young people generally seem to use both on and
offline communication to sustain their social networks such as Facebook and
twitter.
The way the media demonises the youth has left an imprint on
today’s society as being ill-mannered, violent and being associated with drugs,
sex and gangs. Hoodies, joggers, baseball caps, oversized shirts are a part or
the iconography of the stereotyped teens. The media reports certainly do
amplify stories to do with the youth like in recent events such as the protests
and riots; it was all that was shown on all news channels. Where’s the success
of teenagers? Their academic success? Achievements? Robert Regoli, John Hewitt
and Matt DeLisi wrote a book in 2009 called Delinquency in Society; “In
the public’s mind, a few juveniles hanging out together on a street corner
elicits the image of delinquent gang. While these juveniles may not belong to
any formal gang, it is the appearance that decides a person’s view.” So this
quote points out that even though the group of young teens are hanging out on
the street corner doesn’t mean they’re a part of a juvenile group looking for
trouble, they could just be there for social reasons. But because of the
stereotypes that they have been labelled, the group is automatically feared
which is unfair on their part, everyone knows the saying; don’t judge a book by
its cover so why does today’s society still carry on doing it? The media plays
a huge role on reinforcing these qualities in the youth creating what Stanley
Cohen (1987) calls moral panic; a sudden increase in public perception of the
possible threat to societal values and interests because of exposure to media
texts. So that the general public fear young adults who probably have no
violent motives due to the media amplifying the misconception of folk devils
(deviant outsiders). Nevertheless there is a corrupt subculture that rejects
society’s norms and value that overshadows the success of adolescents; their
counter-stereotype of being hard working and well-mannered and that they focus
on differed gratification.
" Teenage victims
are not often afforded the same resources as adult victims of physical abuse
and sexual violence, and even when they are, the resources are designed to
assist adult victims and are not tailored to the unique psychology of teens,
who are often marginalized in our society.” The Psychology of Teen Violence and Victimization-Volume 1- Michele A.
Paludi 2011.
This is
an extract from CNN news, an American news station. This shows a different
representation of youths, in the previous text it showed a negative
representation but in this one it shows a more positive image for
teenagers/young adults
The costume the young black man was wearing showed a completely
different image to what you would expect. He wore a smart shirt and tie putting
the message that he was serious and wanted to make a difference, instead of the
previous costume of hoodies and tracksuits.
The lighting is kept high key, there isn’t much editing of
lighting changed to how it would look in real life, so that it looks realistic
and that it’s something you can trust. The sound is edited so we can hear
the young man talking louder than all the background noises like the shouting
and cameras so that we can concentrate and hear what he’s saying rather than
get distracted with things that aren’t relevant. Also his body language shows
that he knows how to carry himself to get the message across, again not the
typical stereotype.
Social order completely collapsed as the riots broke out and
instead another sub culture was formed, from the use of social media like
twitter, Facebook and BBM deviants were able to meet up and cause havoc.
Historically this sort of thing has happened before, for example ‘The Mods and
Rockers’ but it still isn’t normal which is why it was reported and focused on
so much. Economically the damage the riots caused cost over £200 million worth
of property damage.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots)
Representations
of teens of social sites e.g. Facebook and twitter.
There in lies the problem. The Internet is
perfect for teens. Today's social networking sites like MySpace,
Facebook, and Twitter let them represent themselves as whomever, or whatever,
they want. Everything is edited by them, chosen specifically to present the
face they want the world to see. And if they decide to change that face, then
they just delete some pictures, add some new friends, and voila' - new
person!
These
social networks such as Facebook and twitter, have enable the spread
of ideas and given a voice to ordinary people, have, for good or ill
and clearly made a significant different to recent events over the media.
However, they are technologies that can easily be used negatively as
positively. They provide an expression of human wants and desires.
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