With reference to youth, discuss how the identity of youths has been mediated

Foucalt said that our identity is mediated through other people and we then form a collective identity. By looking at the music video 'S&M' by Rihanna, we can see that she conforms to the stereotypical views of which adults have of teenage youths. Young girls will watch this video and see what she is doing and singing about as acceptable. They will then base their identity around the image which she is giving off in the video. This image of Rihanna is constructed, however teenagers will still follow this (Richard Dyer's Star Theory). This is just one example of how the identity of youths have been mediated as these videos are shown on the television often, not restricting explicit content within them, making this content acceptable in everyday lives.

The song S&M by Rihanna has many sexual connotations and implications. In the music video Rihanna is seen to be in control and to have power over the men, having men tied up or on a dog leash. This is a sexual implication and matches the lyrics of the song 'Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it'. These lyrics do not only influence defiance ('I don't care') for youths, females in particular, but it also implants the idea that sex is good and acceptable. This video will influence young girls to be like Rihanna, forming a 'collective identity'and continuing the hegemonic view that all youth are like this.

Winships notion of complexity is about being prepared, in terms of gratification, to finally recognise the ideal version of ourselves. Rihanna represents a glamorous, popular, ideal image for young girls and this may influence the way in which the youths identity develop Rihanna is portraying the image that this is how young females should be, sexual, permiscuous and careless. As youths already hate constraints and rules, the idea of being like Rihanna, granting them freedom will have a huge influence on their identity. This would then create a collective identity which will then be seen as the 'in-group' (Henri Tajfel social identity theory), mediating the image for the youths which Rihanna has portrayed.

However if you look at an older video released by Rihanna called 'If Its Loving That You Want' you will see that the artist has changed her image and appearance over time to sexualisation and promiscuity. Not only the the artists image changed, but so have her lyrics as they do not have sexual connotations behind them and are not explicit. An example is 'If its loving that you want, you should make me your girl' in comparison to 'Sex is in the air, I don't care I love the smell of it.' The clothing which she is wearing in the video is also appropriate as they do not reveal much of Rihanna's body. The mise-en-scene of the video is also very innocent and natural with people having fun and being happy. As these changes in the artist happened over time, us as an audience have grown to accept it and have become desensitised to the images and lyrics of these songs as they are fairly normal for us.

Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding theory uses the idea that the media encode a text with messages and as an audience it is for us to decode the text and take the message how we believe suits us best. By watching videos such as S&M, youths may take the negative, sexual, promiscuous images as positive. As these negatives are pushing the boundaries of regulations set, this will attract more attention from youths as the more a media text pushes the boundaries, the more attention it collects.

In conclusion, youths identities are being mediated through the development of music videos, which push the boundaries of regulations, as the stars change their image. Youths, who are still developing will then see these music videos and decode the texts in the way which they believe applies to them. As Jacques Lacan's Mirror Stage theory says; 'The media is the mirror. Youths look at the media and reflect the behaviour and trends as youths are still developing.'