Anti-youth or pro-youth films?
These films all involve youths but written by different people. Kidulthood and Adulthood are written and directed by Noel Clarke whilst Fish Tank was written and directed by Andrea Arnold. Noel Clarke has grown up in the 'hood' and has had experience of the streets of London so his perpective is more likely to be correct or 'pro-youth'. Andrea Arnold arguably has a different perspective to youth, more towards 'anti-youth', as she is a middle-aged white woman.
Noel Clarke's view on youths are more relevant in terms of youths and their behaviours nowadays. Although slightly extreme in places, it can easily reach out to youths and be understood. On the other hand, Fish Tank is realitic but involves hidden messages making it quite gritty. There is symbolism in that film, something which Noel Clarke doesn't focus on at all.
Accurate to actual experiences of teenagers?
Both films can be argued as slightly over exaggerative because they have to be entertaining to an audience as well as send a message. I would say that Noel Clarke portrays a more accurate experience of youths because if we look at the London 2011 Riots, youths were represented as violent and uncontrollable. We see in the newspapers time and time again that gang crime is a big problem.
Fish Tank does have elements of accuracy about teenage life in a council estate. While not all youths in this situation are doom and gloom, many of these youths are in a financial and socio-economic problem and result to drinking and taking drugs as a way to deal with their problems. The protagonist is seen taking drinking and having underage sex.
An adult facination of youth, how so?
I agree with this statement because if we look at Henry A Giroux, he has explained it quite well. The article is entitled "Teenage Sexuality, Body Politicas and the Pedagogy of Display" and he writes about adults facination of youth.
Henry A Giroux says that "Lauded as a symbol of hope for the future while scorned as a threat to the existing social order, youth have become objects of ambivilence caught between contradictory discourses and spaces of transition". Here he is explaining that adults look to youth as the hope for the future but also degrades youth by projecting them as objects of violence and uselessness. This puts youth into a state of confusion and represents "symbol of a bright future vs. symbol of a world going to hell".
Conforming to stereotypes circulated by the news media?
Kidulthood and Adulthood definitely confrom to the archetypal characters and hegemonic view created by the media. Especially in tabloids such as The Sun where youths are displayed as "yobs" and "thieves" and many articles on youths tend to be about youths being in gangs.
Fish Tank on the other hand does conform to the stereotypes portrayed of youths living in council estates. While the protagonist is not in a gang, she has a low socio-economic status, doesn't go to school and drink alochol underage.
Who makes these media texts and for who?
Noel Clarke and Andrea Arnold have made these films involving youths for their target audience of Britain. They are quite niche films and any other audiences will probably not understand or appreciate the way that youths have been portrayed and why.
Both directors have encoded their own messages in their media texts for us as an audience to decode and take away the messages we feel are being shown and the ones which are more relevant and apply to us. These messages may be that youths are in trouble and the reinforcement of a "symbol of a bright future vs. symbol of a world going to hell".
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