UNIT4; coursework blog: Final critical investigation

“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 that 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 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. For example a recent tweet showing “boom can’t wait for the new #riots soon!” showing a “panic” to the public. 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.

It has been said that teenagers “They are constantly texting, tweeting, and posting pictures via Snapchat and Instagram”[7]. Social media has allowed teenager 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 New digital media, 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 new digital media: smart phone. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap chat, and all the other popular social media platforms are right there on their phones. Moreover with the help of web 2.0[8] it now allows the audience to interact with one other as it has changed the way people are able to get there news. This in comparison is a binary opposition by Levi-Strauss[9] showing how in the past people had less control as the news was given to us: conservable now the audience is able to pick and share the news and give their own views using social networking sites. For example social networking now allows people to ‘watch’ the news rather then read it through newspapers as a recent thread showed how people have been giving there own opinions using social networking sites regarding a recent news story about a attack in north London.

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 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: this changes how they see teenagers and how they are represented. This links to Colonialism: “Due to post colonialism[10] Alvarado distinguishes between four groups and the way teenagers are represented then they’d belong in the dangerous category”[11] as shown in the media. For example using Facebook could make teenagers more likely to drink and smoke; a news report suggests teenagers who see friends smoking and drinking alcohol in photographs posted on Facebook are more likely to smoke and drink themselves.

According to the report, status showing “drunk” shows the negative representation of teenagers on Facebook as when teenagers are going on Facebook and seeing their friends posts pictures of them doing bad stuff this motivates them to also do the same and this shows that Facebook is the cause of all this as people only do these in order to look popular on social networking sites. For example recent status showings “too much hype on Facebook no work for me today!”[12] Is an example of someone being over addicted on Facebook, this creates moral panic as parents get worried for their children.

A recent article showed how a girl posted up inappropriate pictures on social networking sites both Facebook and twitter which reached everywhere before it could even be taken off. This is a very good example showing the moral panic that caused to parents as this type of post can put in ideology’s[13] using “Marxists”[14] theory as this can put an effect on how the public would see the teenagers and also reinforces how youth are like now days. Facebook and twitter had a big effect on this post as people started “sharing, hashtaging and tweeting”[15] the picture which reached worldwide.

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’[16] to show how the audience uses things for a variety of purposes as in this case teenagers use social media to convey certain messages. A stereotype is “a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.”[17] . It could be argued that teenagers only have themselves to blame for these negative stereotypes, for example the London Riots in 2011.[18] Since the London Riots It can be argued 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. This links to the “influence model theory”[19] as the audience accepts what they see as shown in the riots.

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[20], 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,’[21] on Facebook. According to The Telegraph: "Technology fuelled Britain’s first 21st century riot."[22] The Tottenham riots were orchestrated by teenage gang members, who used the latest mobile phone technology to incite and film the looting and violence. It can be argued 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 for the public [23]. For example a recent Facebook post from a 14 year old teenager posted a picture up of the riots tagging “madness” making the public believe they may be involved in the situation. This reinforces the negative stereotype of how teenagers are represented as teenagers have themselves to blame for putting themselves in this situation and causing moral panic as they would be portrayed in the same image as every other youth “even the bad ones”[24].

‘Social media is essentially a category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and bookmarking online’[25]. Most social media such as Facebook services encourage discussion, feedback, voting, comments, and sharing of information from all interested parties.” [26] The way the Facebook and twitter 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”[27] as they are a part or the iconography of the stereotyped teens. Using “propps”[28] character types we can see the difference of bad and good from the way they dress. Teenagers use social media such as Facebook and twitter for a variety of purposes showing the uses and gratifications model theory[29]; however the way they represent themselves creates moral panic for the public. As for example on Facebook a status showing “banged up”[30] shows Social media can be distracting, according to an article on the Psych Central website. Teens that checked Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period had lower grades. In addition, those teens that used Facebook more often are more likely to display “narcissistic behaviour, antisocial behaviour, mania, aggressive tendencies, anxiety and depression.”[31]

A moral panic is caused when the teenagers post threats to the public.[32] For example the MH370 missing plane news reached everywhere as teenagers were found ‘tweeting’ & ‘hashtaging’ messages such as “ha-ha how can a plane disappear” showing how they are making fun over thousands of lives going; making the stereotype easy to believe. This resulted in moral 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.[33]

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. Looking at Stuart Hall’s reception theory [34] 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.

An example which reinforces the negative stereotype is a 12 year old boy getting beaten up because of his Facebook status insulting another guy “F*** the guy kill him”. This shows the moral panic it creates for the public as they won’t let their kids out. Over three-quarters (76%) of the public said they formed their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the news. These statistics shows just how much the news media influences the public’s views, this puts forward the idea of hegemony by Gramsci[35]. 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.

A recent tweet from a teen “#Hash-Tagging “#F*** #school, twitter is the life”[36] 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 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 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’[37]

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.[38] 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. As for example a recent Facebook group called “no makeup selfie for cancer”[39] created by a teenage girl had used this method to help cancer research worldwide this challenges the stereotype as this shows there are some teenager that take advantage of social media for the good.

When looking back into the past on how the youths have been represented I can see the similarity. An old film which I had studied ‘Quadrophenia’ (1979)[40] is all about a British, working-class youth which shows how “youth were back in the day”[41] 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 it had been shown that he had four different personalities which link to today’s generation. 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.’[42] Throughout the film the moods that are represented are shown to be actively participating in taking drugs and casual sex.[43] 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 which reinforce those negative stereotypes. 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.’[44]

Overall it can be argued that teenagers are represented in a negative way across Facebook and twitter which reinforces the negative stereotype[45]. 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. 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 social media has already shown them negatively across Facebook and twitter[46]. 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”[47] showing teens do not think ahead about their future, only interested in immediate gratification.

This is overall creating moral panic[48] for the public as the media puts forward its hegemonic views that the public passively accepts (hypodermic syringe)[49] making stereotypes easy to believe. ‘The mass media provide an organizational framework within which individuals interact in the context of set roles and established power hierarchies’[50]. 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”[51] and so ultimately social networks such as Facebook reinforce negative stereotypes upon teenagers through the hegemonic views it presents thus creating moral panic. This overall links to “Perkins”[52] theory showing some stereotypes of teenagers on social media can contain some element of truth that has created moral panic for the public. Therefore there are positive representations of youths but it is just been over shadowed by all the negative depictions. “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage.”[53]