UNIT4; coursework blog: Critical Investigation First Draft

“Youth' is expected to provide the solution to a nations 'problems', from 'drug abuse' 'hooliganism' and 'teenager pregnancy'”[1]

‘How does the representation of teenagers in social media such as Facebook and twitter reinforce the negative stereotypes and create moral panic for the public?

It can be argued that "British youths are the most unpleasant violent in the world” [2] which shows how stereotypes of the youths are shown to the public. The purpose of this title questions how teenagers are represented across the social media such as Facebook and twitter which show the negative stereotypes of them that creates moral panic for the public. Stanley Cohen defines moral panic as a sudden increase in public perception of the possible “threat to societal values and interests”[3] because of exposure to media texts and through the over-representation of stories, the public’s mind can easily be manipulated to have certain thoughts and stereotypes. Stanley Cohen had written a book about moral panic where he said moral panic’ is a sociological concept that seeks to explain a particular type of “overreaction” [4] to a perceived social problem. In my prospective the word ‘youth’ is labelled with negative connotations therefore ‘the notion of youth’[5] may have been created to victimise a different target. One of the media’s main purposes is to provide their audience with a good story or a new story. The media puts forward its hegemonic views that the public passively accepts (hypodermic syringe)[6] making stereotypes easy to believe. As all stories have to go through a gatekeeper and the media is able to pick and choose and how stories are shown, it’s easy for those in power to manipulate accounts and show the distorted version to the public for them to accept.

Teenagers are being represented in a negative way across the media and social network sites such as Facebook and twitter which create moral manic to the public. This is because the “media exaggerates a lot”[7] which makes the situation look worse than it already is and these cause moral panics as the audiences who are parents/public get worried. Sometimes the media raise false awareness and this is only to have something to talk about so that they can attract viewers into watching it more and more and keep building stories into the views mind and these changes how they see teenagers and how they are represented. All this leads to the media doing this is only so that they can gain some money over it. This links to Colonialism: “Due to post colonialism [8] Alvarado distinguishes between four groups and the way teenagers are represented then they’d belong in the dangerous category.”[9] As shown in the media.

Any media program would use stereotypes for different reasons this is because it’s easy for the audience to identify and feel comfortable with (uses and gratification) which was founded by ‘Blumler and Katz’[10] to show how the audience uses things for a variety of purposes as in this case teenagers use social media to convey a certain messages. A stereotype is “a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.”[11] . I would argue that teenagers only have themselves to blame for these negative stereotypes, for example the London Riots in 2011[12] where it was well renowned that young people were the main offenders. This generalisation by the media has had serious effects on communities such as the one in Farnham Common. In Farnham Common it was argued that there is a fairly tight knit community, however, since the London Riots I believe that there has been a change in attitude towards teenagers. We all saw the Riots on our television screens and it seems to have had a big effect on the passive viewers among the community.

In this case there was a new dimension in the form of social networking. Despite being depicted by tabloids as mindless thugs and morons, the rioters were also seen as somehow skilful enough to co-ordinate their actions by using Facebook, Blackberry and Twitter. The Sun [13], for example, reported that ‘THUGS used social network Twitter to orchestrate the Tottenham violence and incite others to join in as they sent messages urging: ‘Roll up and loot,’[14] according to The Telegraph: "Technology fuelled Britain’s first 21st century riot."[15] The Tottenham riots were orchestrated by teenage gang members, who used the latest mobile phone technology to incite and film the looting and violence. Gang members used Blackberry smartphones designed as a communications tool for high-flying executives to organise the mayhem. This supports the negative stereotype as this impacts how the public see the youths which create moral panic [16] for the public. As seeing this public would once again feel unsafe to go out.

‘Social media is essentially a category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and bookmarking online’[17]. Most social media services encourage discussion, feedback, voting, comments, and sharing of information from all interested parties.” [18] 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”[19] as they 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[20]; it was all that was shown on all news channels. Teenagers use social media such as Facebook and twitter for a variety of purposes[21]; however the way they represent themselves creates moral panic for the public. As we see in this world we see both negative and positive representations of the teenagers across the social media. Most stereotypes include ‘teenagers represented as the negative youth’[22]. The moral panic is caused when the media exaggerates stories scaring the public.[23] For example the summer of 2011; the London riots; people were informed to stay inside and to not go outside at the fear of being attacked or robbed and also to keep children inside so they wouldn’t join the riots. The news reached all over so before long, even places that weren’t affected would have heard about it which resulted in more panic Regulation and censorship: There have been rules put up to restrict the view of violence from children but what about teenagers; they’ll still be affected with what they see on the TV and on video games. It influences their behaviour and attitudes.[24] Even after being on the media this news had hit many social networking sites such as twitter and went viral where teenagers started ‘tweeting’ & ‘hashtaging’ messages such as ‘Today was madness; can’t wait for tomorrow’s riots’[25] which had created moral panic to the public as people thought even those were involved. Showing this type of example links to what I had found in an article where it stated “those teens that used Facebook more often are more likely to display narcissistic behaviour, antisocial behaviour, mania, aggressive tendencies, anxiety and depression.”[26] This again is showing a negative stereotype of teenagers due to what had happened during the London riots[27] the public thinks all teenagers in this generation are the same even where there are about 60% teenagers who are not like that.

Facebook and Twitter have become so popular that now anyone with access to the internet can get any information they want because it is been made easier or methods have been created to bypass any boundaries. Also the lean back media plays a part, as the content they advertise and how they advertise can be looked at in two ways. Looking at Stuart Hall’s reception theory [28] we can take the preferred reading as it is all just purely for advertising purposes but then the oppositional reading could be that it is actually corrupting the minds of youths. This is because due to there being many stereotypes about teenagers being ‘hood rats’ people don’t see the real story behind their minds as they would have been corrupted due to the social networking sites as according to my research it has it shows “social networking has been a big cause of problems”[29]. It can be argued that the development in technology is always evolving to fill the needs of its users and specially the teenagers as they have become massive consumers of e-media and especially social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter. Twitter and Facebook engages a wide audience as anyone can use it but 45% of its audience base goes to 18-34 year olds.[30]

People say that Social media is becoming more than just a part of their world, it’s becoming their world. Teens are spending more and more time online, usually on a social media platform like Facebook or Twitter, and their online life is not just staying on their computer at home. Most teens now have smart phones where they are on social media networks all throughout the day. “They are constantly texting, tweeting, and posting pictures via Snapchat and Instagram”[31]. Today teens don’t know how to disconnect. Social media has allowed them to take their life online and instead of saying goodbye to friends at school and waiting to see them the next day, they just go home and jump on their favourite social media network and interact with them for the rest of the day. With the rise of smart phones, such as the popular iPhone, teens don’t even have to wait to get home. They can now interact through social media on their way home with the help of their smart phone. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap chat, and all the other popular social media platforms are right there on their phones. One reason this “always connected”[32] activity is harmful is because of the alarming trend of cyberbullying.

Over three-quarters (76%) of the public said they formed their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the news, more than three times the number of those who said they got their primary information on crime from personal experience by seeing the ‘teens’ (22%).”[33] These statistics shows just how much the news media influences the public’s views, this puts forward the idea of hegemony by Gramsci [34]. Gramsci understood that the media teaches people to do things voluntarily to upkeep supremacy in authority and in this context the media ‘teaches’ the dominant view on crime, which people then cooperate with by also taking on this view hence proving Dorfman’s study. But then it is not clear if the view on crime is specifically targeted at young people or at others and the youth today are represented positively. As mentioned in Bill Osgerby’s ‘Youth Media’ “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage”[35] so the view on crime that some people take from the media could be positive for young teens.

“They are shopping for themselves, spending for all they are worth… Some of us may wonder how they get the energy, other how do they get the money.”[36] Because of the media stereotyping the readers would already know the answer to which the author, Bill Osgerby is implying because of the stereotypes given to the youth. “Spending for all they’re worth” so teens don’t think ahead about their future, only interested in immediate gratification. For that reason this suggests they spend without thinking and act irrational. Also indicating how immature and irresponsible they can be by living and spending for today, living fatalistically. Since the media and also social media has an impact on the public minds and influences our view, the institution can manipulate and gate-keep the information given to us “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage”[37] which shows that the positive was mostly hidden due to the negative taking over as the media wanted to create the ‘moral panic for the public’[38] Even though there were people who believe the common stereotypes of teenagers; there are still some people that would argue the other side of the stereotype. As a recent national survey showed that young people are using the internet mainly for studying/ homework (73%) email (59%), games (38%), chat sites (32%). This recent survey shows how 73% of young people use the internet for mainly homework and 32% use it for chat sites.[39] This is showing that it is mainly used for homework rather than chat sites and this shows that there are teenagers out there that do not misuse the internet and use it for useful academic research.

Katz and Lazarsfeld (1965)[40] suggest that personal relationships and conversations with significant others, such as family members, friends, teachers and work colleagues, result in people modifying or rejecting media messages. They argue that social networks are usually dominated by opinion leaders, i.e. people of influence whom others in the network look up to and listen to. This again argues the negative stereotypes of teenagers as this research shows that social networking sites dominates people and gets them to do things on those sites which then would create moral panic for the public. As for example an article from the sun had showed “Facebook status banged up”[41] which instantly shows the negative side of the youth however people do not try to find out the real reason behind this.

Facebook and twitter programs often show characters using drugs and alcohol and engaging in violent behaviours.[42] At a developmental stage when teens seek greater freedom and independence, the glorification of drugs, alcohol, risky sexual and violent behaviours in the media make it challenging for teens to make responsible behavioural choices. Still, media cannot solely be blamed for teens' consumption of drugs and alcohol, or involvement in sexual activities; ultimately it's up to parents to teach their teens about the negative consequences associated with risky behaviours, and the false images often perpetuated in the media for financial gain. Palo Alto Medical Foundation [43] suggests that teens learn to use their critical thinking skills -- and parents can help them in this area -- by distinguishing fantasy from reality, and analysing the agendas and target audiences of various advertisements.[44]

When looking back into the past on how the youths have been represented I can see that there is a big different from then and now. An old film which I had studied ‘Quadrophenia’ (1979)[45] is all about a British, working-class youth who shows how “youth were back in the day”[46] when looking at the cover of the film itself. I noticed that the main title “quad” in ‘Quadrophenia’ refers to the four different personalities that the main character “jimmy”, has around the different people in the movie. For example I had seen that he had four different personalities which link to today’s generation as well. As jimmy around is parents is disrespectful, with his friends he is happy and overactive and to the public he is depressed and emotional. This is a similarity to today’s youth culture as on social sites youths are shown negatively, to their parents they are shown as positives and with their friends they are shown as ‘hood rats.’[47] Throughout the film the moods that are represented are shown to be actively participating in taking drugs and casual sex.[48] Not only does this represent this youth culture as irresponsible and stupid, but also places those in dangerous situations which cause the audience to panic and relax at the same times as the characters are taking these drugs, creating a strong homology between the audience and the main characters. . Overall examples of teenagers in contemporary media are significantly different to those in the past, but still share some similarities this is due to the media changing our views and shaping our beliefs to one dominant view, resulting in people sharing a hegemonic view ‘the predominance of one social class over others.’[49]

Overall it can be argued that teenagers are represented in a negative way across Facebook and twitter which reinforces the negative stereotype [50] about them. This is because Biases about teenagers are represented in all forms of the media, such as the newspaper, radio and television. It has a way of making an event seem more spectacular than it really is. Using the previous example of the “Quebec summit”[51], the youth that was represented wanted to have a non-violent protest[52], however, a small majority of the people who were there caused chaos. However the social media led people to believe that it was everyone who were their caused disorder. One has to wonder why the media would do this. The main reason would have to be advertisements. It is necessary for the media to entertain the public rather then tell the truth of a story.[53] The negative image that the social media portrays also affects how young people view themselves. If a story show a youth that is protesting in the street for change in a peaceful manner and they are portrayed as rebels. It becomes clear as to why youth do not take an active part in changing society; simply because the media has already shown them negatively across Facebook and twitter[54]. Because of the media stereotyping the readers would already know the answer to which the author, Bill Osgerby is implying because of the stereotypes given to the youth. “Spending for all they are worth”[55] so teens do not think ahead about their future, only interested in immediate gratification. For that reason this suggests they spend without thinking and act irrational. Also indicating how immature and irresponsible they can be by living and spending for today, living fatalistically. Since the media has an impact on the public minds and influences our view [56], the institution can manipulate and gate-keep the information given to us.

This then overall creating moral panic [57] for the public as the media puts forward its hegemonic views that the public passively accepts (hypodermic syringe)[58] making stereotypes easy to believe. As all stories have to go through a gatekeeper and the media is able to pick and choose and how stories are shown, it is easy for those in power to manipulate accounts and show the distorted version to the public for them to accept. ‘The mass media provide an organizational framework within which individuals interact in the context of set roles and established power hierarchies’[59]. Such as showing what they have been saying on the social sites shows how their privacy have been taking away from them as “even the good ones get trapped”[60]