Media & Collective Identity Youth

1914-1945 (World War 1 & World War 2)

In 1904, Stanley Hall, the famous psychiatrist, described teenage life as “a time of storm and stress when ‘all’ young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioural upheaval, before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood”. He also stated that the most common mood of teenagers is depressed and that criminal activity is likely to increase from the age of 12 – 24 and that this is because “Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in sex or drink”.

It is obvious that it can be argued that not every young person fits in to this stereotype, the way youth has been portrayed in the media in the UK in the last 100 years does support Hall’s theory. This involves the way young people have been stereotyped in printed press, through film representation and most recently, through the internet.

One of the major time periods in history that disrupts Hall’s theory is the war period between 1914 – 1945. During this period of time there were 2 world wars which affected every person in the UK, old and young. Young people in this time were portrayed as “heroic” and “brave”. As a quote from the Daily Mail in 1939 says, “There were casualties perhaps inevitable for the remarkable view… These men laid down their lives for this country.” And talks about how they were killed heroically in action. Western Morning News talks of the young women who volunteered themselves as nurses in St Lawrence’s Hospital, “I should like to thank the nurses for the noble work they have done in preparing the hospital, the whole of the staff have volunteered for the work.” And as the Sunday Pictorial wrote in 1944, “Because victory is nearer, our men do not slacken in their efforts. Because they have had successes.” Which speaks of young people who are still working hard and have already been successful. Each of these articles were accompanied by images of young people looking heroic and brave.

In terms of British cinema, there was a large increase in the amount of people who paid to go and watch a film. This is because there was a large demand for British films as people did not want to watch films about American life but instead wanted to watch patriotic films that portrayed doctors, nurses and soldiers as heroic. Not only did people go to the cinema for fiction films, they also wanted to see news reels as most people at this time did not have televisions in their homes. A British film portraying war life was ‘Tell England’ (1931, written by Ernest Raymond). Starring Fay Compton, Tony Bruce, Carl Harbord and Dennis Hoey, it follows 2 young men joining the army.

1950's

Rebel Without A Cause (1955): This clip shows James Dean experiencing pressure from his peers. This is signified by James saying the line "You're tearing me apart". This relates to Stanley Hall's theory of youth which describes the teenage years as being full of storm and stress. However, even though we all know what this speech suggests, it is not definite that he means that he is being 'torn apart' because he is stressed.

The Wild Ones (1953): Hedbridge's theory that youth is trouble and that youth want to reject hegemony because it looks 'cool'. This is shown through the speech "Johnny, what are you rebelling against?" "What you got?". It is also connoted through mise-en-scene in the image as the male is wearing a leather jacket and has his arm around a woman who is looking at him in a seductive manner.

Jailhouse Rock (1956): A line in this film, "It's just the beast in me", conforms with Cohen's theory that the media create a moral panic about the youth of today which includes them being labelled at 'folk devils'.

1960's

1970's

"Punk was, and still is, a subculture, characterised as being part of youth rebellion, part artistic statement. Primarily manifested through music."

1976 - 1979 was the height of the punk movement

Working class credibility

Promotion of anarchy, anti-establishment

Hedbridge - Teenagers are fun and trouble

Newspaper:

Daily Mirror (2nd December 1976): "TV fury over rock cult filth" "Obnoxious" "Outrageous" "A pop group shocked millions of viewers last night with the filthiest language heard on British television" "Foul mouthed"

Guardian (10th November 1977): "Punk record is a load of legal trouble"

Daily Mail (2nd February 1979): "Drugs kill punk star Sid Vicious"

Sunday Mirror (January 1978): Cover made by fans - Replaces 'or' of mirror with 'a' - mirra. "The mirror goes on tour with Britain's most outrageous band" 

"Sniffin' Glue (January 1977): "And other rock 'n' roll habits" Newspaper cover in the background with the headline "Parents warned over glue sniffing" 

Quote from Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, "Be childish. Be irresponsible. Be disrespectful. Be everything this society hates"

Film:

Scum (1979): Originally made in 1966 by BBC but didn't like it and wasn't allowed to be shown on tv.

• Directed by Alan Clarke
• Ray Winston played Carlin
• Mick Ford played Archer
• Julian Firth played Davis

A Clockwork Orange (1971): 

• Directed by Stanley Kubrick
• Malcolm McDowell played Alex
• Michael Tarn played Pete
• James Marcus played Georgie
• Warren Clarke played Dim. 
• Example of media influencing young people to behave like the film because of copycat killing. "There's no law and order anymore"

Obsgerby: 

"Representations of youth tell us little about the realities of life experiences by young people, yet are revealing about dominant social and political preoccupation.. Young people serve as a canvas on which debates about more general patterns of social change are elaborated"

Hedbridge: 

• Importance of style to youth sub cultures 
• Media representations of young people portrayed as; Youth as fun, Youth as trouble
• Youth sub cultures reject hegemony through application of style

Stanley Hall

• Storm and stress model - "Adolescence is inherently a time of storm and stress when all young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioural upheaval, before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood"
• Difficulty of adolescence prevalent in:
• - Teenage depression
• - Criminal activity would increase at the ages of 12 - 24
• - "Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in sex or drink"

The Punk era of 1970 was a time where young people were described as being "obnoxious", "outrageous" and "foul mouthed" by the Daily Mirror (2nd December 1976). This was because punk was a promotion of anarchy and anti-establishment. This was portrayed in films such as Scum (1979) and The Clockwork Orange (1971) and portrayed through real life by the Sex Pistols who influenced a large group of young people and strongly changed the way young people were viewed by society. This was reinforced by the bands manager stating "Be childish. Be irresponsible. Be disrespectful. Be everything this society hates". 

1980's

Gregory's Girl

Giroux's theory of reflection described representations of young people as reflecting adult views. This film shows the ideal child, sweet, naive, friendly and non threatening.

Made In Britain

This film represents Acland's theory that youth is anti social and need to be nannied. This film shows that young people are violent, racist, impossible to control and psychotic. Triggered a moral panic.

Meantime

This film shows that society is 'broken' and are trapped with no life or future. It shows the working class being rude, lazy, ignorant and that their children lack guidance. This relates to Giroux's theory that society reflects representations and also Osgerby's theory that teenagers present a mixed metaphor (they hate their family but love their family).

1990's

Trainspotting (1996)

Stanley Hall

Glamourised heroin through cool actors and cool music (who is it by, what is it called)

First speech in film is main character stating aspects of 'normal' life and that he chose not to choose that (choose life, choose a job, i chose not to choose this).

"why would you want to poison your body" - Tommy
characters around 18-29
Heroin

Trainspotting, produced by Film 4 and directed by Danny Boyle, is a strong example of how collective identity is shaped and stereotyped by media through film because of its glamorisation of drugs, alcohol, sex and violence. This means that it supports Hall's theory (1904) that stated that young people need sex, drugs, alcohol, criminal activity in their lives to excite them. The main narrative of Trainspotting is centred around protagonist Mark Renton (played by Ewan McGregor) and shows him injecting heroin into a young girl and having heroin injected in him as well as smoking a cigarette and using strong language throughout. This supports all aspects of Stanley Hall's theory because ...

This lifestyle is highly glamorised by the mise-en-scene, the camera work, the music, the "cool" personalities of the actors. It makes this lifestyle look cool and fun (heroin addiction rates increased dramatically after this film was released). This supports Osgerby and Hedbridge's theory because
- Talk a bit about main characters

Human Traffic (1999)

Jip - "prince of paranoia"
Koop -
Nina - works in fast food restaurant, "the most together out of all of us"
Lulu
Moff
Clubbing, drugs, sex, portrays what life was like in 90's but may be the case that people imitated the film
Ecstasy
Music - primal scream, fatboy slim - aids in the film appearing cool to the young generations that watched this film

Trainspotting was not the only film that featured the lives of young, rebellious drug takers, Human Traffic also portrays this. Directed by Justin Kerrigan, this film supports Hall's theory because it is based around the lives of a group of friends who are planning a big night out including a lot of drugs. (Talk about characters and plot)

Also links to Osgerby/Hedbridge because the behaviour portrayed in this film would appear fun to the audience. This may also be thanks to the mise-en-scene, cast choices and music choices add to the connotation of fun and excitement because _____.

Talk about how media portrays lifestyles of the 90's, people may have copied the film

This film implies that the connotation of young people in the 1990's were all rebelling and taking drugs, which supports Hall's theory. The printed press did very little to dispel this image, the majority of articles I found about young people in the 90's related to drug use such as _____.

Film was not the only media platform that portrayed young people in the 90's, newspapers were doing it too. The South London Press on the 17th of October 1995 had the headline "Raid on ravers" applying to young people in nightclubs who were taking part in the newest crave 'raving'. It then goes on to say "Cops have swooped on a top nightclub in a bid to smash drug dealers preying on youngsters in the rave scene" which insinuates that not only did young people want to go out at night and get involved in raving, but they also wanted to take drugs whilst doing it. However, the use of the quote "drug dealers preying on youngsters" implies that it was not the youngsters fault but they were targeted by drug dealers (who were presumably older than the youngsters enjoying the rave). This relates to Osgerby's theory that young people present a mixed metaphor of wanting to have fun and create danger but are also consumers of this lifestyle (and in this case, physical consumers of the drugs that are handed to them in nightclubs). A line in the main story of the Sun on the 13th of June 1991 contradicts this theory as they state that "Raving is all about good clean fun" with no danger involved.

South London Press (17th October 1995) - "Raid on ravers" "Cops have swooped on a top nightclub in a bid to smash drug dealers preying on youngsters in the rave scene"

The Sun (13th June 1991) - "Rave is all the fave" "Raving is the new dance crave sweeping Britain... But you can forget the shock and horror of Acid House" "Raving is all about good clean fun" "Drugs, booze, dance floor brawling"

The Sun (1st November 1992) - "Shoot these evil acid barons, mum in fury at girl's drug death"

The Sun (June 1992) - "Computer 'web' to change billions of lives (yeah, right)"

2000's

Osgerby - Representations of youth tells us little about the reality

Hedbridge - Youth is betrayed as fun and trouble, youth subcultures reject hegemony through application of style 

Stanley Hall - Storm and stress model - youth are obsessed with sex and alcohol, if they are not provided with excitement they are likely to sought it out through sex or drink. 

South London Press (October 8, 2007) - "Brave teen's fight to live" - Positive portrayal of youth

Daily Mirror (8th April 2013) - Teen appointed as a flagship youth police crime commissioner said yesterday that she was "very ashamed" after tweeting about sex, drugs, violence, immigrants and gay people. - Was a positive portrayal when appointed the role but then they found negative points to report on 

Guardian (24th January 2006) - An Old Bailey judge yesterday released CCTV film to highlight the "depressing and alarming" teenage cult of happy slapping as he named a 14 year old girl who was in the gang that beat a man to death 

Guardian (10th November 2010) - Student protest over fees turns violent. Protestors smash windows and get onto roof of Tory HQ as estimated 50000 attend London rally. Protestors smashed windows and waved anarchist flags from the roof of the building housing the Conservative party headquarters as the fringe of a vast rally against university funding cuts turned violent. - Positive as shows young people standing up for themselves and wanting to get an education. Negative because they turned to violence

Guardian (9th August 2011) - London riots - Buildings were torched, shops ransacked, and officers attacked with makeshift missiles and petrol bombs as gangs of hooded and masked youths laid waste to streets right across the city. 

10 reasons to cheer our teenagers youth article by the BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2008/07/10_reasons_to_cheer_our_teenag.html

Film

Kidulthood - Directed by Menaj Huda in 2006. Main characters: Trife played by Aml Ameen, Sam played by Noel Clarke, Alisha played by Red Madrell and Jay played by Adam Deacon. Negative portrayal of youth. 

Attack The Block - Directed by Joe Cornish in 2011. Sam played by Jodie Whittaker, Moses played by John Boyega and Pest played by Alex Esmail. Different portrayal of youth, their motive is to 'save the day' - positive representation 

Inbetweeners - Directed by Ben Palmer in 2011, Will played by Simon Bird, Jay played by James Buckley, Neil played by Blake Harrison and Simon played by Joe Thomas. Completely different representation, features the young characters being obsessed with sex almost as if their lives revolve around it.

Youth representations in the 2000's are similar to those of other eras (especially 90's, 80's, 70's) as it shows teens being heavily involved in violence, profanity and sex. This relates to Stanley Hall's theory that young people seek excitement through sex, drugs, alcohol and danger. However, a film that shows a different portrayal of youth is Attack The Block as it shows the youthful main characters wanting to 'save the day'. This leads on to talk about the BBC's article "10 reasons to cheer our teenagers" which features 10 positive facts about teenagers. Another article that positively portrayed teenagers is the cover story of the South London Press on October 10th 2007 which featured the headline "brave teen 's fight to live". The connotation 'brave' is not one usually associated with youth as they are more likely to be seen as the opposite of this, 'cowards', because articles tend to focus on news where the youth have caused the problems and then fled the scene before they can be fixed, leaving adults to sort the issues out. Whilst the Inbetweeners still portrayed young people as being obsessed with sex and alcohol, they were not portrayed as being obsessed with violence or being in gangs. The film also shows that the characters are generally nice people and mean well. This is a different representation to that of the teenagers in Kidulthood as they are shown as being very nasty to each other using violence and swearing, as well as being obsessed with sex.