Identity is complicated

View more presentations from mediamonz

How far does the representation of youth change over time?

The representation of youth in Britain has changed significantly in the last four decades, youth representation is more extreme and they are constantly the lime light of headlines and social discussions. TV programmes such as Skins and Glee also represent youth as an interesting and complicated generation. The contemporary view of youths is mostly negative due to the representation proposed by the media this is evident in the films ‘Rebel without a cause’ and ‘Kidulthood’. In 'Kidulthood' they are all youths living in an urban deprived area in London, they all use slang to communicate with each other this is part of their collective identity which relates to post modernism in the sense that this movie gives an explicit view of social lifestyles of teenagers. There is a mixture of teenagers each from different ethnic backgrounds and sustained cultural views which illustrates diversity and how this has evolved throughout the 21^st century. This is different to Rebel without a cause as there is one dominant race in the movie, who is white middle class people. Theorist David Gauntlet said that ‘identity is complicated, everybody thinks they’ve got one’ this is evident in 'Kidulthood' as there is a variation of characters that each has their own identity.

In Rebel without a cause we see how there is a distinct ‘in’ and ‘out’ group within the film. We see How James Dean adopts negative rebel like traits in order to conform to the ‘in’ group Tajfel says this is done to maintain his self esteem. In addition to this we see how James Dean and his peers all wear leather jackets and have a particular slicked hairstyle which is a symbolism of their sub culture. Similarly in ‘Kidulthood’ all the characters where hoodies, trainers and hats which represents there sub culture, However these items of clothing have now become the stereotype and dominant label of youths in modern society youths are negatively labelled as trouble if seen wearing hoodies, hats and trainers. Even though this view point is in somewhat unfair it is an unchangeable stereotype that has existed for many years.

Youth are presented as a group that interact together in order to find ones personal identity which relates to Richard Jenkins social identity theory, in Rebel without a cause the youths all hang out together during school and have locations in their local community where they meet up and have car races, to adults in society this creates a fear as this is dangerous and portrays youth as careless beings. This perception is the same In ‘Kidulthood’ as characters partake in sex, drugs and easy illegal money making to find their individual identities. These explicit activities create a bold heightened fear of the rise of STI’s, the increase of young offenders and also teenage pregnancy within the UK.

Violence and aggressive behaviour of youth is constantly being highlighted in the media and has been shown to influence many of their aspirations and activities within their society. In Rebel without a cause there is subversion between characters as James Dean and Martin are juxtaposed when it comes to aggressive behaviour James dean usually punches walls and tables when frustrated whereas Martin will sob quietly and be alone in a depressed state. In 'Kidulthood' the depth of violence is more explicit for audiences to see the construction of modern society and how youths use a separate colloquialism when conversing with one another. Sam and Trevor are the dominant characters of the film they are both portrayed as young males in society who have no direction in life which ends in Trevor being killed at the ending of the film, this horrific event shows what is happening in reality and has references to the increase of Gun and Knife crime in London today and the seriousness it.  In society in the 50’s using expletives when speaking to friends was seen as an insult and total violation this is why in Rebel without a cause none of the youths use explicit language when speaking to each other as a contrast to this 'Kidult hood' represents Post Modernism views as youths use harsh language when having a conversation as this is seen as the norm in society, people tend to dismiss swearing and use it on a daily basis when joking and also having a general conversation.

Technologies have developed significantly over the years and have enabled many people to communicate efficiently and quickly, today 90% of youth in Britain own a mobile phone or computer. In Rebel without a cause youth did not have mobile phones to communicate with one another. Merleau Ponty stated that as youths ‘we have an embodied experience which allows us to form our identity with anything we use our bodies to create, In 'Kidulthood' the majority of the youths own mobiles and use them to communicate with txt messages each other throughout the day and which enables them to have a sense of collective identity. In actually fact youths today have so much more technologies and opportunities however they fail to realise the positive impacts and tend to subvert from these which results in the media taking advantage of this and representing youths as negative beings in society that cause controversy take a major example of this is youth being the central focus of the London riots.

The representation of youths have changed significantly and have become more explicit as we live in a modern society values and norms are less important. The values and morals youths once had have disappeared and youths have been labelled a ‘out of control and confused’ generation in society. This stereotype will remain dominant for many years until youths subvert from presentations in the media and more youths achieve and be positive individuals in their community rather than ultimate failures.

How do the contemporary media represent youth and youth culture in different ways?

In society today the media represent youths as negative beings and create a sense of moral panic through the stereotypes formed from visual examples of teenagers in the news, magazines and TV programmes. These media platforms initiate stereotypes of teenagers which can have serious implications to how people perceive youth and can have a dramatic effect of the lives of teenagers when it comes to finding work and being socially accepting.

The media as a whole tend to represent youth as rebellious, failures and asbos this is evident the TV programme ‘Misfits’ the teenage characters are all asbos who do community service on a daily basis and get up to no good together they illustrate Richard Jenkins theory of us ‘interacting with other people in order to form our identity’ as they are all different beings but they hold many similarities they are able to form their own unique identities and characteristics. Similarly in ‘Skins’ the characters are all rebellious as they all take drugs and live wild lifestyles as they interact with others their identities are projected.

Many adults protest that ‘children are the future’ and that they are being mis-represented are often correct this is a significant issue as the media rarely portray positive representations of youth. This is partially because the media are only interested in entertainment and stories that can have a dramatic effect on audiences and consumers. However in the magazine ‘Young Voices’ youth are represented as positive achievers and positive influences to society. This magazine highlights successful teenagers and portrays them as talented young beings. This is illustrated by young music artists such as Tine Tempah and Katie B featuring on the front cover of the magazine as many youths have the same aspirations as them.  Stuart Hall said that ‘the media as a principal form of ideological disseminations, produces representations of the social world’ the London Riots can be related to this theory as The media represented youths as deprived out of control beings. The news coverage was significant as the BBC focused on the youths looting and violent protests, they showed horrific pictures from scenes of youths  from all ethnic backgrounds creating trouble instead of focusing on the minority of adults and people who society would consider as respectable beings who were also taking part in looting. The media created an overall moral panic which has left adults devastated and also with a solid negative stereotype of youth as a whole.

In the past youth were represented as negative but the representation wasn’t embodied into society as it is now as the media now acts as a hypodermic needle constantly in our daily lives.  Facebook is social network that was created by Mark Zuckerberg in his film he is represented as a successful young person who is at university and trying to reach his goals. The representation of him has an impact on society as it subverts from the common negative stereotypes. Merleau Ponty said ‘we have an embodied experience and anything in which we use our bodies to create it builds our identity’ this is shown in the creation of facebook as Mark Zuckerburg built his identity and became the youngest millionaire through creating Facebook.

Overall the media represents youth in a negative way through the representations for different sub cultures in society which forms an ideology in society. However this is constantly being manipulated through the uprising numbers of different identities being formed and the number of youths achieving and enhancing society through their talents and aspirations.