Looking at two types of Media, describe the ways in which a particular group of people are collectively represented or provided for, using specific examples to support your response.

Looking at two types of Media, describe the ways in which a particular group of people are collectively represented or provided for, using specific examples to support your response.

Youths are the collective group which I studied throughout my A2 Media course.

In the media, youths are represented in a negative way. They do this by making the majority of teenage and young characters fit a typical stereotype based on the actions of a small minority of teens in society. This makes all teens and young people look bad. The typical stereotypes which are used to portray teenagers and young people to make these characters into criminals, ill mannered youths, trouble makers, vandals, promiscuous party animals and so on. An example of this is the London Riots. The media exaggerated the actions committed and created fear in society, blaming the entire event on youths. They do this through the use of pictures, video footage and biased words such as 'yobs', 'animals' and 'thugs' which categorises youths and controls the mind of the audience, telling people in society how to think instead of letting them decided for themselves. Camera shots of the riots shown on the news were close ups of youths and all interviews shown with the rioters were of youths, however when wideshots were shown of a larger crowd many adults could be seen amongst the rioters. This will affect the way in whch teenagers and young people will be seen in society. This is a form of post modernisation, where the media controls the mind of the audience and constructs a reality for them in their mind which they will base their life around. If the media merely reflected on collective identity, they would not use biased words or construct any type of view in the audiences head but would instead just describe or explain an incident and allow the audience to make their own judgement. 

Not only are teenagers and young people portrayed negatively in the news and in reality but they are also portrayed negatively in fiction television programs. An example of a program in which there is a negative portrayal of young people and teens is Misfits. Each of the main characters are young people who are criminals doing community service. None of them have manners or respect for each other or anybody else other than themselves. Another television programme which portrays youths in a negative way is 'The Only Way Is Essex. This TV programme shows youths to be very permiscuous, ill behaved party animals who behave outrageously and do not have a high level of knowledge as the cast say many things which are not very intelligent.

 

Youths are also represented in a negative light by films. This has been the case over a long period of time. The film 'Rebel Without a Cause' was released in 1955, over 50 years ago, yet youths were still portrayed in a negative way. However over time the portrayal of youths have changed quite significantly and the change is very obvious to the audience when these films are compared. James Dean, in Rebel Without A Cause, is well spoken and shows respect to who he is talking to. He also dresses quite smart in and out of school. James Dean even hangs around with the character who is not seen to be 'cool' or in the in-group. Only later on in the film does he wear a red jacket with the collar up which was in those times seen as a rebels style of clothing. Females are seen as part of the group in Rebel Without A Cause but are not seen as rebels themselves. However if you compare this with a Y2K film such as Kidulthood the females have a group of their own, not hanging around with the male rebels but instead creating their own female rebel group. The clothing also differs in the Y2K film. The clothing which the 'rebels' wear are hoodies, jeans and trainers for the males and low cut tops, short skirts and other revealing styles of clothing. Even when in school uniform, instead of dressing smart, the rebels would wear hoodies or hats over their school uniform to show that they are a part of this culture. The dialogue also differs from that of Rebel Without A Cause. While James Dean and the other rebels spoke quite respectfully and formally, the youths in Kidulthood use alot of colloquialism in their speech when communicating as well as alot of swearing. The topics of which they speak are also quite adult and permiscuous usually including sex. If not sex then violence. This shows their rebellious culture through their speech as well as their actions where as in Rebel Without A Cause all of the trouble which they got up to was a lot more playful and troublesome. There is a clear difference but the collective group is still represented in a negative way.

In conclusion, youths as a collective identity are portrayed in a negative way by both the media and films. Not only have they been portrayed negatively recently but this representation has been the same for many years.