Prezi - Umbrella Questions

Umbrella Questions on Youth on Prezi

Internalised Stereotypes: 'Kidulthood', 'Adulthood', 'Fish Tank''

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".

Do ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Fish Tank’ create a realistic representation of youth?

Kidulthood (written by Noel Clarke) and Fish Tank (written by Andrea Arnold) are both ‘2k’ films involving youths and their struggles in today’s society.

Stuart Hall proposes that the media, as a principle from of ideological spreading, produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals. Hall asserts that ideological things become ‘naturalised’. The way youths behave and act have changed, arguably for the worst, but have mostly been portrayed in a negative light by the media. If we look at 1950s ‘Rebel Without A Cause’, James Dean’s only rebel-like actions are smoking, popping his collar and an occasional fight. Youths in Kidulthood are seen fighting with knives and guns, taking drugs, having sex and swearing constantly throughout. This shows that youths are becoming more violent. However, we are so used to it, we have become desensitised as Stuart Hall explained and because of this, it can be argued that Kidulthood and Fishtank do create a realistic view of youths.

Print media, especially tabloids, generally represent youths as violent, unintelligent and delinquents. The Sun continuously mock youths, by calling them “yobs” and “thugs” and even go as far as pointing out which race caused the most trouble which can be read in their article “I predict a rioter” (Oct 25, 2011). The article gives their readers estimated percentages, debatably exaggerated, on the type of people that were in the riots and heavily implying who members of the public should avoid, as if they were helping the public. Print media such as The Sun tend to thrive on generating moral panic to sell their papers and almost control what readers should think and how we should act. If we all followed what the media told us, we would end up living in a Marxist society whereby the social order of things will be governed by the media (Karl Marx). This post-modernistic view of youths created by the print media does match the representations both ‘2k’ films show also.

David Buckingham says, “A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups”. Technology is used by so many youths to interact, organise things and be social. However, it can be used to create anarchy, demonstrated in the London 2011 Riots where rioters were arranging riots via Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger (BBM). During the riots, BBM was shut down temporarily in an attempt to help stop the mass rioting and even Twitter was threatened to be taken down. Similarly, the youths in Kidulthood used their phones to communicate with each other, meet up and cause chaos. On the other hand, the main character in Fish Tank didn’t seem to be all social on her mobile phone or other technology.

The main character in Fish Tank, despite not being social technologically, was depicted as a stereotypical and archetypal teenager. Henri Tajfel said that individuals strive to improve their self-image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, based on their personal identity or various social identities which results in ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups. The main character of Fish Tank is seen as the ‘out’ group because she isn’t like the other young females in the film, who are seen trying to impress boys in the beginning with their dancing. However, the main character does actually want to be able to dance and be a part of that ‘in’ group. There are many types of groups viewed as ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups among today’s youths and this illustrates it and so this does represent youth realistically.

Winship’s notion of complexity is about being prepared, in terms of audience gratification, to finally recognise the ideal version of ourselves. If we look at today’s music videos by such artists as Rihanna and Temper T, we can see that their audiences are made up of many youths. When youths watch music videos such as these, their identities mediate as they are represented with what they think is an ideal version of a young male and female, as Winship’s notion suggests, and may see these people as role models to follow. Rihanna’s videos promote things of the sexual nature while violence is being glorified by Temper T’s videos. These videos can easily influence youths as they attempt to find their identity (David Gauntlett). Continuous promotion of sex and violence being exposed to youths without much regulation, is an indication that youths are alike the portrayals by Kidulthood and Fish Tank.

In conclusion, a range of media products display their views of youths and even change them but youths have been seen overall as negative. This matches the representations of youths seen in ‘2k’ films, Kidulthood and Fish Tank. In the future, youths may become worse and as the media covers it and films are made about it, we may become desensitised even further and not realise how bad things are for youths.

Theorists Cards (Sachin and Nathan)

 DAVID GAUNTLETT












“Identity is complicated, everyone think they’ve got one”

This means that identity is complex as our identities are mediated by many factors

Case Studies:

Music artists – Rihanna, Lady Gaga

Rap – glorifying violence and sexualisation

Ever-changing fashion + trends of celebrities (Richard Dyer Star Theory)

David Buckingham:

Quote: “a focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups”.

Meaning: “this means with the constant rise in technology it can keep influencing youth’s lives in more ways”

Case study: related to London riots and how with increased technology made it easier for them to rebel in relation to the Brixton riots.

STUART HALL

“The media as a principle of ideological dissemination produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals.

This explains how the media reflects social ideas that are relevant to how society is regulated

Encoding/Decoding Theory

This explains that the media encode messages within their texts for audiences to decode in ways which apply to their situation and personal lives.

Case Studies:

Tabloids vs. Broadsheets

London 2011 Riots

Music videos – Rihanna, Lil’ Wayne

Henry Jenkins:

Quote: “teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online, adding photos and posting on each other’s virtual walls.”

Meaning: this means that teens are constantly updating their life and constructing there identity.

Case study:  web 2.0

Brixton riots vs London riots 

Merlau Ponty

We have an embodied experience and anything  in which we use our bodies to create new things with builds our identity.

This relates to youths creating online profiles on the Internet such as Facebook and Twitter and how we feel a sense of belonging because of this

Case Studies:

Web 2.0

London 2011 Riots vs. Brixton Riots

Expressing views and opinions and creating a sense of belonging online.

Music Videos and Youth Identity (Anika, Beth, Sachin)

Music video and youth identity

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With reference to youth, discuss how the identity of youths has been mediated.

Foucault said that our identity is mediated through other people and we then form a collective identity. Foucault is against categorising people into a group (stereotyping). He believes it is hard to get out of a group once accepted into it. By looking at Rihanna’s music video “What’s My Name?”, we can see that she conforms to the typical youth and gender characteristics. Young girls watching this video will deem her behaviour acceptable, constructing their identity around her constructed image (Richard Dyer – Star theory). This music video is an example of one that will aid the mediation of youths behaviours and ways of thinking.

This will restrict young girls views of being who they are, in order to become like Rihanna, which will result in them being categorised into a group (collective identity) and finding it difficult to change once stereotypes as Foucault suggests. Rihanna’s “What’s My Name?” shows Rihanna getting together with Drake after a short meeting in a shop. This demonstrates the idea of youth being social, busy and sexually promiscuous. As youths watch this, they’ll see it as acceptable to have relationships such as this and ‘one-night-stands’.

The lyrics are also very suggestive and youths can pick up the connotative messages which may influence their way of thinking or encourage them to continue the hegemonic view; that youths are all like this. For example, “I really wanna see if you can go downtown with a girl like me” has connotations of a sexual nature.

Rihanna represents an idea of a popular and ideal look for a young girl and this may mediate youths thoughts on what to expect and what to strive towards as Winship’s notion says. Winship’s notion of complexity is about being prepared, in terms of audience gratification, to finally recognise the ideal version of ourselves. Rihanna is portraying an ideal image of what a young female should look like and therefore their target audience will try and change to suit this image. Their constructed audience is ‘made’. This constructed view of a young female is then treated as the ‘in’ group for youths. Henri Tajfel says that “Individuals strive to improve their self-image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, based on their personal identity or various social identities - ‘in’ group, ‘out’ group.” Youths will have been mediated into wanting Rihanna’s portrayed image.

If we look at older music videos such as “Rapture” by Blondie, there is a big difference in lyrics and mise en scene. The lyrics do not have as many colloquialisms in it, nor sexually connotative message and the camera doesn’t focus entirely on the artist but also on other characters on set. If the artist had shown more of her skin and the camera had many close ups of her then this music video possibly would have been banned. In comparison, Rihanna’s music videos are much more focussed on the artist and are much more explicit. However, nothing is being done about it because as an audience, we have been desensitised to this being the ‘norm’ nowadays. Modern consumerism has helped music videos involving sexual images and violence becomes glorified. These ideologies being fed to youths may impact their thoughts and may be influenced into thinking that the representations they are seeing via the portrayals in these music videos are that of the society, as Stuart Hall says. He also says that ideological things are becoming naturalised.

Stuart Hall's encoding and decoding theory explains that the media encodes messages within their texts for us, as an audience, to decode and choose to believe what messages we think best apply to us and our situations. In terms of youths, they may pick up messages that project violence and sexualisation in a positive light. Looking at a modern youth music video, Temper T’s “Next Hype”, violence has been used as a comical factor to appeal to its target audience. Youths watching this are probably not even phased by the thoughts of violence in this video because it has become normal to involve this in music videos. Modern artists in the pop and R&B genre seem to be using ‘shock tactics’ to attract their audiences to construct their image. The weirder something is or the more something pushes the boundaries of regulations, seems to be attracting youths. Youths, then, will be more likely to adopt the same ideologies of violence and rebellion that the artists hold thus their identities being mediated to think like this.

"Identity is complicated" says David Gauntlett meaning that we never adopt one identity and keep it, but that we mediate and end up changing our opinions and attitudes regularly. This seen especially among youth. If we look at the ever-changing images portrayed by music artists these days, such as Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga. They change the way they represent themselves so their audiences are forced into persuing their 'look' or constructed image, Richard Dyer's theory. Their audiences are mostly youths which will try and follow the messages given out by these artists. If these artists keep changing their identites to keep up with the fashion, youths will never get to settle into a collective identity and are obligated to mediate along with them. Their identity will become complicated.

To conclude, youths identities are being mediated via the inconsistancy of an artist's image and the ever evolving music videos that seem to be pointing in the direction of more violence and more sexually explicit content. Youths may think that this hasn't affected them but they have become disensitised to being exposed to the promotion of violence and sexualisation and won't notice it. For the future, music videos may become more extreme and youths may end up striving to become the idealised images that artists will be portraying.

Media Glossary

Key Terms:

Apathy – Not caring

Archetypal – Typical behaviour or actions

Associations – When things are linked together

Binary Oppositions – Class/race/gender/age/disability

Brand – The company or name that gets popular, attached to the person or product

Buzz Words – Words that have certain triggers

Collective Identity – Sense of belonging, sharing same interests as others

Connotations – The implied messages within media texts

Construction – The way something is put together

Counter Culture – A culture that goes against the mainstream

Democracy – The choice of voting for what you want

Dichotomous – The division of something

Direct Address – When a product or person is made to be reaching out to you personally

Enigma - Mysterious

Global media – The media worldwide

Hegemony – Dominant view

Iconography – Visuals associated with a person, can be part of their collective identity

Identity – Your characteristics and personality

Identity Construction – The creation of an identity

Ideology – A set of ideas

Intertextuality – Referencing other films

Marketing – The way something is advertised to the public

Marxism – Communism, one way of thinking and living

Media Saturated – Media is inescapable, we see it everywhere

Mediated – Changed, adapted

Mise en Scene – Literally what’s on the set (costume, props, backdrop)

Moral Panic – A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order.

Narrative – Story line

Neo Marxism – Modern Communism

Perspective – The viewpoint of someone or something

Post Modernism – Our reality is constructed

Regulation – Censorship, blocking of content

Representation – The way something is portrayed. (editing, camera, colours, mise en scene etc.)

Social inclusion – The breakup of groups

Social Order – Stance and status (hierarchy)

Socio-economic factors - associated with childhood survival and the economic perceptions of large family size

Star – The popular figure

Subculture – A group with their own separate beliefs to society

Subservient – Doing something without question

Subversion – Going against the stereotype or social norm

Superimposition – Overlying message

The Feminine Mystique – Women are capable of what men are doing

The Male Gaze – Women objectified by male media

Verisimilitude – The appearance of being true or real

Web 2.0 – Websites that allow users to create and share content rather than just receive it.

Althusser – Interpellation – We become bombarded with messaged, we become a subject rather than an individual as soon as we engage them, they control us (post modernism).

Blumer & Katz - Audience Gratification – Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine. Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life. Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts. Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains.

David Buckingham “A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups”.

David Gauntlett – “Identity is complicated – everybody thinks they’ve got one”.

Henri Jenkins – Teens are constantly updating and customising their profiles online adding photos and songs and posting to each other’s virtual ‘walls’. While this could be interpreted as just playing around, these activities could also be a means to construct an experiment with their identity. In particular, it can be a space for exploring one’s gender identification and sexuality.

Henri Tajfel – Individuals strive to improve their self-image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, based on their personal identity or various social identities - ‘in’ group, ‘out’ group.

Hypodermic Needle Model – Media is like a drug, it’s all around us and we even take it in without trying. The Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated; the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text.

Jacques Lacan – Mirror stage study, child development. Children are able to recognise their selves in a mirror at a young age.

Jeff Shanz – Living anarchy (theory of Practice in Anarchist Movements).

Karl Marx – Marxism theory.

Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs – A pyramid of needs:

Biological and Physiological > Safety > Belongingness and Love > Esteem > Self actualisation

Merlau Ponty – We have an embodied experience and anything in which we use our bodies to create, we help builds our identity.

Michael Foucault – We are born with a basic identity. Our identity mediates as we get older and meet other people. We gain a collective identity by doing this and become part of a group. However, it can be seen as a negative to be part of a collective identity because this encourages stereotypes to be created. Once you are in a group, it’s hard to change and be seen as different.

Richard Dyer – “A star is an image constructed from a range of materials” (songs, album art work, media coverage, live performances, music videos)

Richard Jenkins – We need to interact in order to form our identity. With others or the media, partaking in an event (reality virtually) with people who help us form a collective identity.

Strinati – Post modernism is said to describe the emergence of a social order in which the impotance and power of the mass Media and popular culture means that they govern and shape all other forms of social relationships. Popular culture signs and Media images increasingly dominate our sense of reality and the way we define ourselves in the world around us. Now reality can only be defined by

surface reflections in a mirror.

Stuart Hall – Proposes that the media, as a principle from of ideological spreading, produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals. Hall asserts that ideological things become ‘naturalised’.