Examples

Print
Press coverage 
The I
Time out 

Broadcast
Ill manors 
Top boy
Kidulthood/Adulthood
Some girls
Attack the block 
Anuvahood
Inbetweeners 
Outnumbered
Misfits 
Made in chelsea

E-Media
E20
SBTV
Spiff TV
Youth Crime commissioner- Paris Brown

Leveson Inquiry

David Cameron rejects call for statutory press regulation

This story was about a dispute between the coalition government, conservative David Cameron and liberal democrat Nick Clegg over the release of the results from the leveson inquiry as Nick Clegg argued that press should be regulated over this story as he argued that he wants to protect the people as argues that the press  can expose abuse of power without abusing its own. On the other hand David Cameron wants free press as he argued that legislation could ultimately infringe  free speech and a free press. 

Personally i would agree with David Cameron that the press should not be regulated as British citizens deserve the truth, and every little detail about it, as regulating would be a form of silencing the press, also regulating will only lead to reinforcing the theory of hegomony as the government will only let the press publicise what they think is appropriate, and regulate anything that would badmouth them. Also i believe that Britain is a pluralistic country as we believe in democracy therefore regulating the press would go against that. However i can understand where Nick Clegg is coming from as free press has caused alot of trouble in the past therefore i understand why he would want to regulate it, however i think that due to being a democratic country i believe that there should be free press.

Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/29/leveson-report-david-cameron-rejects

E20

#E20

The representations that I can gather of young people from watching eastenders spin off e20 is overall negative as they shown to be delinquents through their actions as they go against rules set by the care home, (go against the norms and values of society), from the way they dress to the way they talk shows how they disobey authority portraying themselves in a negative way, therefore not being a fair representation as most of the teens shown within the webisode are portrayed in a negative limelight    

Producers and audiences may be more interested in negative stereotypes of young people as its what audiences expect therefore producers are more interested in portraying the negative stereotypes of young people, this can be linked to verisimilitude which refers to what an audience expects from a text in terms of content and forms/conventions. The quality of appearing to be true or real, however producers may use some form of mediation where audiences see the producers version of reality, in this case being the negative stereotypes of young people within the show e20 as they have been over exaggerated. Also some audiences enjoy watching negative stereotypes of young people as it provides entertainment (escapism) for them, also some audiences may see themselves reflected in the text (personal identity).

However a positive example of representations of youths in British television would be the show Waterloo road which subverts the negative stereotypical portrayal youths, as the programme shows hard-working students in school rather than on the streets causing havoc. however the show portrays some aspect of youth delinquency as it shows some students who form an anti-school subculture, who achieve through illegitimate means. The uniforms is another way   Another example would be the show skins which heavily portrays youths to be deviant as it portrays them to be promiscuous as they encounter in a number of sexual activities, it also shows them to be feral as they go against the law by stereotypically causing anti-social behaviour as they drink an excess amount of alcohol and take drugs, this negative representation has been associated heavily with youths and has been overrepresented within British television.

Kidulthood Questions

Kidulthood

The general representation that is conveyed of young people in London through the film Kidulthood is overall negative as it portrays them in the stereotypical manner as they are shown to be feral through the violence, such as the fight scene between the two girls, the drug taking as the opening scene showed two youths smoking a 'zoot' (weed). They also show the youths to be very intimidating through their clothing as they wear hoodies and baggy trousers, this was shown through the opening scene as one of the main characters 'sam' was seen as the ring leader who wore this type of clothing.

It can be argued that this is a fair representation of youths within London as the events shown within the opening scene are common amongst youths such as bullying and the violent behavior, however it can be argued that these events have been over exaggerated, as they have all been condensed into one opening scene, also it can argued that its not a fair representation of youths within London as not all youths are like the people that are shown within the opening scene of Kidulthood, as you do get youths that show a positive attitude towards school, who would rather catch up on work before school rather than smoking weed and be deviant.

The opening scene from Kidulthood is a good example of verisimilitude as it shows the groups that typically form within schools, for example you have those that play football, those that hang around in gangs who cause trouble and those that stay quiet and do their work. Also the language used within the opening scene is typical of teenagers as they talk in an restricted language code as they use slang words such as 'sket' and 'blud', therefore being a good example of verisimilitude as its what the language and the behavior which is shown is what the audience expects. It can be argued that audience have formed these interpretations from the dominant ideologies which the media has presented of youths within London, this can be  linked to the theory of hegomony. 

A negative representation is better than no representation at all

The word representation can be defined as a description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature. Teenagers especially have been stereotyped negatively ever since the ‘Mods and ‘Rockers’ event occurred. Nothing much has changed since then as teens are still being represented as the feral youths that were represented back then. Some may argue that any representation is better than nothing at all as teens are being shown in the media; however a majority of that coverage seems to be negative publicity, therefore giving a general negative representation, in this essay I shall sum up both the pros and cons of a negative representation and shall assess which is better.

Some may disagree with the statement as teenagers for example would argue that no representation at all would mean that there would be less of a negative stereotype, therefore meaning that there would be less of a stigma attached to teens. The media have played a big part in the negative representations of teens For example this statement can be linked to current examples such as the London Riots has given young teens a negative representation as the mass media have portrayed youths within London to be ‘feral’. This is reinforced by the images portrayed by institutions such as the guardian which have carefully handpicked images of young delinquents committing utilitarian crimes; this is an example of hegemony – the dominance of one social class injecting dominant ideologies into audiences which can also be linked to the theory of hypodermic needle. This has affected many teens within London as it may have led to Howard Becker’s theory of self-fulfilling prophecy, where by the label attached becomes true. Also a theory which can be linked to the negative representations of teens within the media is the dependency theory, this theory talks about how people look to the media for true representations, therefore if a representation is negative then teens would be stereotyped as negative, therefore a negative representation would not be better than no representation in this case.

On the other hand some may agree with the statement as for celebrities a negative representation would benefit them more than no representation at all as a bit bad publicity Is good publicity for celebs as it keeps there name circling around the media, which informs audiences that that person is still around, For example the negative representation of  jimmy savile may not be positive, but it has kept his name circling around the media which may not be good for him but it has made people remember him, therefore for celebrities a negative representation is better than none at all.

Personally I would disagree with the statement as a young teen living in London, this negative representation that surround teens like myself within London is generally negative, having previously been formed by the moral panic that was created by the Mods and Rockers, I think that this negative representation has hindered a lot of the youth within London, especially as the constant negative publicity that has been portrayed across all 3 media platforms, especially print has altered a lot of people views/opinions of teens in general, injecting views that teens are ‘feral’, etc. I therefore believe that no representation is better than a negative one as the constant negative representation that has surrounded teens in society has altered a lot of the choices we as teenagers have made, as they form the opinion that the representation is not going to get better, so why not do as the media portray us out to be (self-fulfilling prophecy).

Lord McAlpine

The BBC will pay £185,000 in damages to Lord McAlpine following the Newsnight broadcast in November which wrongly linked Lord McAlpine to allegations of child sexual abuse. Although the programme did not name Lord McAlpine , however he has indicated that he now intends to sue the Institution BBC after it led to him being identified on the internet (twitter, etc). George Entwistle the ex director general, stated that "We should not have put out a film that was so fundamentally wrong. What happened here is completely unacceptable" he goes on further to say "I have taken clear and decisive action to start to find out what happened and put things right." He also admits that the institution was facing a bad crisis of trust in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. In my opinion i don't think that the programme newnight should close as this incident is similar to ITV's this morning where a list of  pedophiles was revealed on national TV including Lord McAlpine as one of them, this lead to Institution ITV being fined a sum of £125,000 similar to BBC. I think closing a show like newsnight will only cause even more problems for institution BBC as the recent story on jimmy savile has put them under enough pressure already.

This was the tweet that Sally Bercow tweeted which landed her in a lot of trouble. She argues that her tweet was just mischievous and not libellous and  if she gets sued for it then so be it.Personally i think that the tweet was wrong as the accusations made on BBC Newsnight were false and that the tweet was just another way to get at Lord McAlpine himself. However i don't think the tweeter should be fined as this is a form of pluralism, having the opportunity to voice your own opinions, but in today's society i think that with sites like twitter, peoples voices are becoming suppressed as it has seemed to land alot of people in trouble, for example the Tom Daley and Riley incident .

Sources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/20340847
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/nov/15/bbc-lord-mcalpine-compensation-newsnight
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/bbcs-newsnight-report-implicating-lord-mcalpine-in-child-sex-abuse-should-never-have-gone-out-8303444.html

Case study - Young people in London

The representation that I can gather from looking at  the jpeg cutting from the newspaper article called 'trouble in the hood' is that young Londoners are portrayed as feral as the image shown within the article shows young Londoners being delinquents as they battle against authority by committing utilitarian crimes, showing an overall negative representation of young Londoners placing them in the news for negative reasons

Media theory which can be related to this could be the hypodermic needle as the representation that is shown within the article is injected into audiences creating stereotypes and opinions on certain ethnicity's and gender, another theory which could be related could be Stuart Halls reception theory as audiences might take a preferred reading that all teenagers are feral and delinquents, which again creates a negative stereotypical image of young Londoners

This text can be referenced to in an exam as it is a prime example of negative representation of young teens (Londoners) within the media, as it surrounds the issue as to why young teens form such a strong anti subculture which causes them to become delinquents within society. Also the fact that a lot of media theory covers the issue of teens and negative representations which would benefit this text being referenced in the exam as there would be a lot to write about.

The representation that I can gather from looking at the jpeg cutting from the newspaper article called 'broom army' is overall positive as it puts young Londoners in a positive light as they sweep to reclaim back their streets. However from looking at the image, it is clear that a majority of the sweepers are predominantly white, therefore portraying the image that other races/ethnicities don't care about their streets

Media theory which can be related to this could be