These couple of videos show the live coverage of riots and the implications of the riots and press coverage. The Question Time video brings up very interesting points about the reasons for the outbreak of riots and unrest of British Youths. It seems that some feel that its not the medias fault for the riots, but the way that parenting has changed and many lack respect for their parents and in consequence the police. Obviously the reasons behind teenagers showing no respect could come from the TV shows we looked at such as Skins or Misfits. You see characters ignoring parents, leaving home and arguing with them, which could transfer over into real life. Misfits makes the audience seem like the characters are not interested paying back to the community through community service, and it may stereotype british youth as not caring about law or the police.
The other video shows the a different side to the implications of the London Riots coverage and TV dramas about youths. You can see that many "older" people stereotype any British youth that they are causing trouble even if they are justing taking the bus to college. This has probably come from constant media attention of the small amount of trouble makers throughout the country.
A great phrase used in a video watched was "Teenagers are like a plane, you only hear about them when they crash".

David Gauntlet

DAVID GAUNTLET
Professor of Media and Communications at University of Westminster

Gauntlet is a theorist who believes that you can't just generally show identities generally for a community of people. He basically feels that there are a lot of different implications that create someone's identity - obviously this is probably mainly through the media, however others around you, how you were brought up etc have an impact too.

He researched into different people expressing their identites using Lego, as he felt it was a more creative way of showing an identity and people would possibly think more in depth when using this method. They would have to use metaphors to show parts of their identity, EG a fence would show they we protective of their belongings or a window would show that feelings are very obvious and can be seen by others easily.

There were many findings from the variety of people used. Some include the fact that people want to have an individual identity, but also want to feel part of a collective. The fact that identities are very complex is also notified, although this might seem obvious, it seems that the media may generalise identities rather than show the complexity. It was also touched upon that people don't think they are influenced by the media, however the media helps people think about their identity because it gives them stories and ideas to relate to.



The findings are interesting and definitely can be related to our investigation into the collective media identity issue.
One example that I can think of is the Skins episode we watched. The character was shown having a complex identity, with the idea that he was grouped with a perhaps bad group of people at college and was torn between them and his religious family. This definitely does show the complexity of identities as well as feelings, however it could be said that the collective identity of teenagers in it is generalised throughout the series.

Skins Series 4 Episode 1 Representation

The episode we watched revolved around Thomas, who was a character who was torn  religion/family and social life/girlfriend. The show obviously showed stereotypical things that young adults are pretty much renown for, such as: taking drugs, underage drinking/getting drunk, sleeping around and bunking lessons. Which were all apparent in the very first episode of the series. At the begining of the episode a lot of the main characters were at a club where it was 200 people over capacity, the club allowed anyone entry and drugs were dealt within the club. A stereotypical setting for teenagers to hang out.
Differently to other teen dramas we have watched and seen on TV, the show also focuses on more serious views and ideas in the episode.

The story of Thomas shows the problems he has at home, grief he gets from his mum about who he hangs about with, the fact he has to look after his siblings and how his family are very religous. Obviously these are the things that arent always thought about when teenagers are talked about in the Media. The episodes could be showing the reason why teenagers turn to violence, drugs, alcohol and antisocial behaviour. The fact that religion is a big part of the characters life and it actually helps him to sort hiself out at the end of the show, tells us that Skins is not trying to represent Teenagers completely negatively.

'Brtish Youth Representation' through TV - Current

Skins
Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. Its controversial storylines have explored issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness (eating disorders for example), adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death. The show was created by father and son television writers Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain for Company Pictures, and premiered on E4 on 25 January 2007. The show went on to be a ratings winner in its target demographic and to be a success with critics.

The show is famous for its unique and clever way casting of amateur actors and young writers. The cast are entirely replaced every two series, when the characters leave sixth form and begin their adult lives. There are usually about eight main cast members, although the second generation had nine. Most of the central actors are relatively inexperienced, but better-known actors, such as Nicholas Hoult, Jack O'Connell and Dakota Blue Richards have taken leading roles. Additionally, the show has traditionally cast well-known British comic actors as the parents of the central cast, who appear sporadically.

The show's writing team has an average age of 21, and includes several "teenage consultants". The series co-producer Bryan Elsley said, "It's all about the writing. We're about letting our audience feel they are not alone. We're always having people miss [writing] meetings because they've got A-levels or even GCSEs".

The first series received positive reviews, although some critics complained that the series depicts teenagers unrealistically and stereotypically. But how wrong can it be if a large proportion of the Skins writing team are teenagers? Others criticised the excessive promotion of the show (specifically in the UK) and having relatively mediocre writing in comparison to other similarly themed shows. Actor Nicholas Hoult defended the extreme storylines, saying they would not reflect "everyone's teenage life", adding "it is maybe heightened for entertainment but all of it is believable."

   

    

'British Youth Representation' through TV - History

 

Grange Hill
Grange Hill is a British television drama series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest running programmes on British television. It was created by Phil Redmond who is also responsible for the Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks; other notable production team members down the years have included producers Colin Cant and script editor Anthony Minghella.

Grange Hill was originally conceived by ATV comedy writer Phil Redmond, who first approached various television companies with the idea in 1975, unsuccessfully. In 1976, he managed to sell the idea to the BBC, and the drama executive Anna Home gave the series a trial run of nine episodes, the first being broadcast on 8 February 1978. From the start, the series caused controversy for its real-life, gritty portrayal of school life, rather than the more idealistic school dramas that preceded it. Redmond has said that he wasn't really able to start pushing the boundaries until later series'. This however led to Redmond being forced to agree that there would be no further series unless he toned things down. Grange Hill's highest profile period was undoubtedly the mid-late 1980s. One of the most famous storylines during this time was that of Zammo McGuire and his addiction to heroin. This storyline ran over two series (1986–87) and focused on Zammo's descent into drugs and how it strained his relationship with girlfriend, Jackie and friend Kevin.

On 6 February 2008, the BBC announced Grange Hill was to be axed after exactly 30 years. The announcement was made by CBBC controller Anne Gilchrist just two days before the show's official 30th birthday. Grange Hill ended on Monday 15 September 2008 with a further return appearance by Todd Carty, in which Tucker persuaded his nephew Togger Johnson not to give up on school like he did. Other than that there would be no spectacular conclusion.

Press Coverage Of London Riots

The London Riots was covered throughout all newspapers, on new websites and on news shows. The riots started on the 6th August 2011 right through to the 10th August 2011. Youths and teenagers were constantly scrutinised and blamed for all of the violence and the papers especially focused on this group - however we know it was not all teenagers involved.

WIKIPEDIA:
Following a peaceful march on 6 August 2011 in relation to the police response to the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by Metropolitan Police Service firearms officers on 4 August 2011, a riot began in Tottenham, North London. In the following days, rioting spread to several London boroughs and districts and eventually to some other areas of England, with the most severe disturbances outside London occurring in Bristol and cities in the Midlands and North West of England. Related localised outbreaks also occurred in many smaller towns and cities in England.

The Sun Newspaper had very contriversial and bold headlines when these riots we going on. I feel that this is definately a strong tabloid to analyse as headlines such as "RIOTERS AGED 7", "ANARCHY", and "MEET THE ACCUSED". The photos used along with the headlines are very vivid and you can clearly see, without even reading anything but the headlines, that the newspaper is refferring to young people and youths.



With loads of around the clock news channels being aired on TV, the riots were constantly a talking point throughout the shows. Any footage that was filmed by onlookers, rioters themselves and TV crews were obtained and anaylsed thoroghly 24/7. The fact is it seems that all opinions and views were extremely biased and from a clip found on Petes Media Blog, you can see what reporters were trying to do when the other opinions were put forward.
As you can see the newsrepoter did not want to let the man speak his mind on why young people were committing these crimes. As soon as he accused the police of always suspecting young black people, she cut him out. You could easily argue that they wanted to make sure talks revolved around the fact that young people were comitting these crimes and not how it had been building up over the years and it wasnt there fault.




Obviously there are many other news pieces that represent the riots and young people in similar ways. Strong front pages such as The Daily Mirror also immediately show that it was teenagers comitting these crimes. There are loads of sources on Youtube with interviews from a variety of News Channels.

Misfits Representation

Straight from the beginning we noticed that there were negative representation of young offenders/people. Some characters were smoking, not listening to their probation worker, swearing at him, talking on their phone and starting fights among each other.

When starting community service, the characters try really hard to dress up and look good - even though it is just community service. This is hinting that there is such pressure on young people and they are assumed to want to dress up and look stylish no matter what. You see that when Gary gets white paint on his hat he goes mental!

There was also hints to different social groups throughout the episode, with Simon being called the "wierd kid", Kelly being called a 'chav' and lots of name calling of 'sluts' and 'virgins'.

Curtis is adamant that he "shouldn't be here", which is representing the fact that young people always think that the worlds against them and they are always treated unfairly. This perhaps could be the case though!

Gary was seen smoking drugs in the toilet - which again is always associated with young people and perhaps criminals.

Response to Prompt Questions

1. How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic/social/collective groups of people in different ways?

2. How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?

3. What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?

4. To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?


My initial response to the prompt questions is that we should focus British youth. We could focus on how British Youth are represented in TV, for example the TV series Skins and Misfits. We could focus on how British Youth are represented in Film, for example films like Kidulthood. We could also focus on how music, certain music genres and how contemporary media represent the people who listen to different genres and categorises/label them through the music they listen to.  We could look into how British Youth are represents by music artists too. 

For question 2 we could focus on how the previous generation are struggling to adjust to the current one and may be a possible reason for contemporary media to be so critical of British Youth. 

For question 3 we could talk about how the labelling and categorisation of British Youth from contemporary media can cause them to feel united against whatever force is governing them. For example, police in the London summer riots. 

TV Representation Of Young People

We feel that recently there have been many Teen Dramas and  that have shown a variety of different representations of Young People.

Examples we can use:

SKINS - Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol through the two years of college Its controversial storylines have explored issues such as 

dysfunctional famalies, mental illness, adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skins_(TV_series)

THE INBETWEENERS - the show follows the life of suburban teenager Will and three of his friends at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The exploits of four friends, who are socially only marginally above what one of them calls "the freaks", are presented as they grow from their late teen years into adults and as they go on their quest, usually unsuccessfully, for such grown up things as beer and sex.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220617/

MISFITS - Misfits is a British Science Fiction Drama television series about a group of young offenders forced to work in a community service programme, where they obtain supernatural powers after a strange electric storm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misfits_(TV_series)

FRESH MEAT - The show revolves around the lives of six students who are freshers (with the exception of Howard) at the fictional Manchester Medlock University. They live in a shared house off-campus rather than university halls of residence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Meat_(TV_series)

SHAMELESS - Shameless is a comedy drama set in a Manchester council estate named Chatsworth. It follows the lives of the Gallagher family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shameless

TOPBOY - Set on the fictional Summerhouse housing estate in Hackey, North London. The series follows the lives of a group of criminals involved in drug dealing and street gangs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_boy

Write a summary paragraph explaining what we understand about our theme and what types of things it could include.

Media and Collective Identity means how the media interprets different groups of people. Throughout our blog we will be explaining our thoughts on involved subjects of our title, such as teenagers with student protests and how that effected the media, also the representation of the people involved in the London riots. From physical actions to media incorporated subjects like YouTube where people express themselves in different ways to attract some attention either from their viewers or the press. young social groups will be through about constantly throughout our blog as being young people we can understand who's in what social groups, for example how music can change peoples social groups.also we'll be looking into how young people are represented on TV for example skins, top boy, misfits and the inbetweeners. All of these idea's will gradually build up in our blog to give us enough information we need to write up our critical response. 

Defining the Key Terms

Social implications - when you something that causes you to have a negative affect on you by groups in society.

Contemporary media - media in every day life. modern, present day media

Representation - refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures. 

(http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC30820/represent.html) 

Mediated - An interpretation, between two different people. For example a newspaper interprets young people and mediates this to the readers.

Human Identity - The set of behavioural or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.

Prompt Questions

Media and Collective Identity Prompt Questions

1. How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic/social/collective groups of people in different ways?


2. How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?


3. What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?


4. To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?

Possible things to think about:

- Representation of Young People from Press - London Riots and University Protest

- Social Networking Groups

- Young People Representing themselves through Youtube

- The idea of fitting in with a group - Music and different tastes

- Representation of Footballers and Football Fans through Press and Film

- Young People through Tv and Film - Skins Etc