Contemporary Representations of British Youth - Task

Thinking of contemporary media, that is to say the media from 2009 onwards, is there evidence to support Hebdige's assertion that British Youth are portrayed as either:

"Troublesome youth"

The political representation of youth as posing a threat to society and the status quo. Youth are seen as dangerous and subversive of society's moral values.

Benefit Street (TV program)

Sun sex and suspicious parents 

"Fun-loving youth"

The commercial representation of youth as going through a rites-of passage style period in their life during which they may behave differently but don't threaten society. They have a need to belong which can be exploited by society for commercial reasons.

Freshers

TASK

Create a post in which you use images of media representations of British youth from 2009 onwards to show these two categories. These representations could come from any form of the media

Dick Hebdige - Hiding in the Light (1998)

I have previously introduced you to Dick Hebdige. We talked about his 1979 book titled 'Subculture - the Meaning of Style' and I gave you the quotation below as one you should learn:

"Members of  a subculture often subject their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, music and mannerisms" - Hebdige (1979)

Hebdige also wrote a book called 'Hiding in the Light' which was published in 1988. It is here that he discussed the concept of youth being represented as either a threat or a non-threat. 

The first chapter of this book opens as below:

Hebdige's hypothesis here is that society in general (through the media) are only concerned in representing youth when there is something negative to say. He discusses the birth of the concept of the 'teenager' and goes on to assess the effect of consumerism and the move from a one-dimensional representation of youth, to a two-dimensional representation of "youth as trouble, youth as fun". He writes that teenagers are seen as either "troublesome youth" or "fun-loving youth."

Hebdige sees 'youth as trouble' as being a political representation whereas 'youth as fun is commercially driven.

So, when you look at representations of British Youth Culture in the past can you see evidence to support Hebdige's thoughts? You can read 'Hiding in the Light' in full by CLICKING HERE.

Collective identity past questions

Here is a collection of past questions from the Collective Identity section of the exam paper. Hopefully, by looking at these you will be reassured that the exam does not hold any great terrors for you.

A good piece of advice to try to make the question more accessible is to replace the term 'group of people' with 'British Youth'. 

For example:

Analyse the ways in which at least one group of people is mediated'

becomes

Analyse the ways in which British Youth are mediated.

"Media portrayal of young people - impact and influences"

CLICK HERE to open up a research document published by the National Children's Bureau.

This is a screen shot from the document explaining the purpose of this research project.

"Negative portrayals of teenagers In the media" The Guardian

Another useful bit of independent reading regarding the perceived negative portrayal of teenagers in the media. This time it is from The Guardian and reflects on their own representation of teenagers. 

CLICK HERE to read it.

'Hoodies, louts, scum' How the media demonises teenagers

CLICK HERE to read an interesting article from The Independent concerning the media's portrayal of teenagers in the UK. 

The use of the word 'demonise' is interesting in itself if we remember that Stan Cohen used the term 'folk devils' when reflecting on the portrayal of teenagers following the Clacton / Brighton fights in 1964. There seems a clear association between young people and language connoting evil.

Exam Question: Analyse the impact of media representation on the collective identity of British youth in the 1960's

Collective identity is where someone feels or shows that they belong to a certain group type that shapes their personal identity. Some examples of collective identity are Casuals, Hipster and Mod. Youths seem to be drawn toward sub-cultures because it fits their identity, the way they dress, what type of people they hand around with and the way they act around one another.

British youth in the 1960's were all about the Mod's and Rockers. The fashion spread through the country with the smartly dressed Mod's and the all black, aggressive Rockers. Although, throughout time and history, the media has played a massive part in the way these sub-cultures has been portrayed and put a label over the sub-cultures. The 1964 riots in the South coast of Britain involved the two sub-cultures, the Mods and Rockers. The Mods wore designer suits protected by Parka jackets and were often known to carry coshes and flick-knives. They rode Vespa or Lambretta scooters, modified with numbers of mirrors or mascots and listened to music such as Ska and The Who. Rockers rode motorbikes with no helmet to protect them, with leather gear on and listened to music such as Elvis and Gene Vincent. These two major gangs collided and clashed in the 1964 weekend violence in Brighton, which was famously made in to a film called Quadrophenia. Quadrophenia shown the audience a insight into how this youth culture were sting and what they were doing in their everyday life. From violence to love, this showed the true colours of these two different sub-cultures. Although, this film may have been a hit with the cinema, the audience was now labelling the sub-cultures on how they were portrayed in the film. The representation of teens are now changing in the eyes of the world.

"Subcultures try to compensate for the failure of the larger culture to provide adequate status, acceptance and identity. In the youth subculture, youth find their age related needs met". 

Dick Hebdige suggests that the reason for these sub-cultures and the way they act is to get attention, create there own identity and portray a message to viewers. The Mod's have certainly got their own identity with they way they dress and they way they act mixed with the film Quadrophenia, showing that the media has played a massive role in getting them known and made people have an opinion on them. The Mods and Rockers didn't want to follow the crowd with wearing 'normal clothes' and listening to  plain music, they wanted to be different, stand out from the crowd but this back fired on them as a sub-culture. When the Rockers came along, they created this hatred towards each other resulting in both of the groups getting a bad name for themselves.