TASK 1: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4coGerRh4ZI
 35:50-38.00

Charlie Brooker looks at many events but the one I’ll be focusing on is the London riots.
All the teenagers in the clips of the riots were wearing stereotypical costumes like hoodies, jackets, trainers, bandannas, baseball caps and most of them were masking their face to hide their identity. Them hiding their identity show that they know what they’re doing is wrong however they still carry on, but this sort of irrational behaviour is typical of the connotations of the youth in London today. At 35.52 Charlie broker is in a serious scene where he’s parodying a news style report. We can see this from the backdrop; window out looking the London eye and from what he’s wearing, a smart suit. His posture and tone of his voice is very formal which is the style of a new report.
The lighting is a mixture of high key and low key because the different clips from the riots are filmed in different times of the day. But in terms of the studio lighting, that’s kept bright (35:52) to keep the mood bright as the story being told is depressing so in order to keep the viewers watching and not get depressed the setting is kept bright. But at 36:09 the lighting change to a low lighting and makes it look like all the lighting is coming from one lamp in the background. This gives a more one to one feeling so it engages more with the audiences as we’ll feel like he’s only telling us, uses and gratification- Blumler and Katz.
The diegetic sounds of the shouting and the bashing of the riots displays the dangerous atmosphere giving the audience a message of a menacing environment. Also the voice overs’ narrating is a typical style of a news report even though it’s not an actual news channel we can tell from the tone and the voice of god that it is a news report.
Social order completely collapsed as the riots broke out and instead another sub culture was formed, from the use of social media like twitter, facebook and BBM deviants were able to meet up and cause havoc.
Historically this sort of thing has happened before, for example ‘The Mods and Rockers’ but it still isn’t normal which is why it was reported and focused on so much.
Economically the damage the riots caused cost over £200 million worth of property damage.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots)
Looking at this from a political perspective they say that the hooliganism and ‘gang culture’ didn’t represent the culture as a whole. Political members such as the London mayor Borris Johnson and Prime Minister David Cameron were appalled and the police are working on catching the criminals and are slowly making progress.
Changing technologies in the 21^st century made it easy for people to connect and find out what was happening. Because of the progression of technology like being able to access social media on your phone made it even more convenient for rioters to organise and assemble to target different areas which are the effect of globalisation in the media.
Because of the over representation and the amplification of the story it caused masses of moral panic. The riots were such a hot topic everyone knew about it and were constantly urged to stay indoors and to also keep their kids at home and since they were constantly being reminded they were scared for their own safety which shouldn’t be an issue in the comfort of their own home. This really demonstrated what an impact the riots had on the local community.
Furthermore due to globalisation the news of the London riots travelled fast as it was shown on American news.
Text 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNeYnWL3D9A 
This is an extract from CNN news, an American news station. This shows a different representation of youths, in the previous text it showed a negative representation but in this one it shows a more positive image for teenagers/young adults
The costume the young black man was wearing showed a completely different image to what you would expect. He wore a smart shirt and tie putting the message that he was serious and wanted to make a difference, instead of the previous costume of hoodies and tracksuits.
The lighting is kept high key, there isn’t much editing of lighting changed to how it would look in real life, so that it looks realistic and that it’s something you can trust.

 The sound is edited so we can hear the young man talking louder than all the background noises like the shouting and cameras so that we can concentrate and hear what he’s saying rather than get distracted with things that aren’t relevant. Also his body language shows that he knows how to carry himself to get the message across, again not the typical stereotype.

The setting is out on the street with a massive crowd including journalists and the paparazzi, which shows that the story is a hot topic and should be known about.

American news- globalisation, showing the full effect of the digital revolution. More developed countries like the us and the uk are more open and are not closed to only their country. They report news globally and let countries know what’s going on around the world making them more conscious

Stuart Hall’s reception theory would explain the preferred reading to be the young black male not conforming to stereotypes but in fact is the opposite. He’s well educated with what’s happening with the world around us, for example EMA, universities, Libya. But on the other hand the oppositional reading would be that the young male is being disrespectful towards the Mayor, arguing with someone older than him and being loud and obnoxious.

Notes and Quotes-Targets

• Avoid using sociology quotes- shorten or embed them.
• Remember to include page refrences.
• Use Key Words to guide your research.

                                                      - News Media

                                                      -Moral Panic

                                                      -Representation (Theory/Concept)

                                                      -Teenagers

                                                      -Negative Stereotypes

• Media Magazine
• Media Edu
• Charlie Brooker Newswipe- riots (Youtube)
• Stanely Cohen
• Examples from the sun/ The Daily mail

Tabloid, broadsheets= Print

BBC, ITV, Sky = Broadcast

• Focus on tabloids and Sky

Notes and Quotes

The way the media demonises the youth has left an imprint on today’s society as being ill-mannered, violent and being associated with drugs, sex and gangs. Hoodies, joggers, baseball caps, oversized shirts are a part or the iconography of the stereotyped teens. The media reports certainly do amplify stories to do with the youth like in recent events such as the protests and riots; it was all that was shown on all news channels. Where’s the success of teenagers? Their academic success? Achievements? Robert Regoli, John Hewitt and Matt DeLisi wrote a book in 2009 called Delinquency in Society; “In the public’s mind, a few juveniles hanging out together on a street corner elicits the image of delinquent gang. While these juveniles may not belong to any formal gang, it is the appearance that decides a person’s view.” So this quote points out that even though the group of young teens are hanging out on the street corner doesn’t mean they’re a part of a juvenile group looking for trouble, they could just be there for social reasons. But because of the stereotypes that they have been labelled, the group is automatically feared which is unfair on their part, everyone knows the saying; don’t judge a book by its cover so why does today’s society still carry on doing it? The media plays a huge role on reinforcing these qualities in the youth creating what Stanley Cohen (1987) calls moral panic; a sudden increase in public perception of the possible threat to societal values and interests because of exposure to media texts. So that the general public fear young adults who probably have no violent motives due to the media amplifying the misconception of folk devils (deviant outsiders). Nevertheless there is a corrupt subculture that rejects society’s norms and value that overshadows the success of adolescents, their counter-stereotype of being hard working and well-mannered and that they focus on differed gratification.

"Teenage victims are not often afforded the same resources as adult victims of physical abuse and sexual violence, and even when they are, the resources are designed to assist adult victims and are not tailored to the unique psychology of teens, who are often marginalized in our society.” The Psychology of Teen Violence and Victimization-Volume 1- Michele A. Paludi 2011.

The mind of a teen is very different to the mind of an adult, for example adults can be more mature about decisions made and also can resolve things better, so to have resources for abuse only tailored to adult victims is just strengthening that gap between teenagers and adults. Furthermore the abuse to teenagers isn’t emphasized as much as teenagers abusing others to reinforce that negative stereotype, the media stories go through a gatekeeper who determines what’s shown and what’s kept from the public eye. So the image the media institutions are trying to portray can be an example of the ‘Hypodermic needle theory’ which is the idea of the media injecting messages straight into the ‘passive audience’ who then instantly gets influenced and cannot break away. Youth Cultures: Texts, Images, and Identities-Kerry Mallan, Sharyn Pearce – 2003. “Theoretical stories are situated within the writers’ own personal predilections and disciplinary traditions” perspectives provide us in ways to think about issues that may be contradicting, like for example teenagers and these principles or ideas on teenagers cannot be 100% accurate because emotions, morals and beliefs get in the way and because each person holds different views, theories cant scientifically be proven true. Positivists believe that none of these values should ever get in the way when obtaining data to create a scientific theory; but this way of thinking is often criticised by interpretivist because no matter what, humans feelings will get in the way.

Youth Media By Bill Osgerby- “they are shopping for themselves, spending for all they are worth… Some of us may wonder how they get the energy, other how do they get the money.” Because of the media stereotyping the readers would already know the answer to which the author, Bill Osgerby is implying because of the stereotypes given to the youth. “Spending for all they’re worth” so teens don’t think ahead about their future, only interested in immediate gratification. For that reason this suggests they spend without thinking and act irrational. Also indicating how immature and irresponsible they can be by living and spending for today, living fatalistically. Since the media has an impact on the public minds and influences our view, the institution can manipulate and gate-keep the information given to us “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage” (Youth Media By Bill Osgerby). The media over- represents the negative stories so that it over shadows any positive coverage, creating a corrupt, damaged generation.

“Young people could be judged on ‘what they might do’ rather than what they actually do”-Parents, Children, Young people and the state by Sandra Shaw. This approach to young people is unfair to the ones being accused and to others. For innocent teenagers who behave and have no immoral motivations are automatically being feared on the basis of what their stereotype might do or say. Because of these people being feared and are anticipated to do bad might just fulfil this prophecy and commit crime anyway because its expected from them. Other people who are older than them or fear them would be influenced because of the label of youths and would change their everyday lives; for instance not going down a certain road because there are a group of teens or not going inside a shop because a group of youths went in. These groups of teenagers may not have the intention to cause any disruptions and yet people will still go out their way just not to encounter them. But on the other hand if we judged everyone on what they ‘might do’ rather than what they actually do then where would we all stand? In fear of everyone.

Crime, Justice and the Media- By Ian Marsh, Gaynor Melville, Gaynor Melville. 2009.-“Dorfman (2001) found that over three-quarters (76%) of the public said they formed their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the news, more than three times the number of those who said they got their primary information on crime from personal experience (22%).”An amazing bit of statistics that show just how much the media influences the public’s views. Dorfman (2001) carried out research finding that over three quarters of people get their opinions from the news this puts forward the idea of hegemony suggested by Karl Marx but then furthered by Gramsci. Gramsci understood that the media teaches people to do things voluntarily to upkeep supremacy in authority and in this context the media ‘teaches’ the dominant view on crime, which people then cooperate with by also taking on this view hence proving Dorman’s study. But then it isn’t clear if the view on crime is specifically targeted at young people or at others and the youth today are represented positively. As mentioned in Bill Osgerby’s ‘Youth Media’ “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage” so the view on crime that some people take from the media could be positive for young teens.

Parents, Children, Young people and the state by Sandra Shaw: Page: 90 “The notion of ‘youth’ is seen as a fairly recent invention”. The word ‘youth’ is labelled with negative connotations therefore ‘the notion of youth’ may have been created to victimise a different target. One of the media’s main purposes is to provide their audience with a good story or a new story. The media puts forward its hegemonic views that the public passively accepts (hypodermic syringe) making stereotypes easy to believe. As all stories have to go through a gatekeeper and the media is able to pick and choose and how stories are shown, it’s easy for those in power to manipulate accounts and show the distorted version to the public for them to accept.

Audience Theory

Audience theory is a wide range of media theory about the audiences role.

Two step flow
Marxism
Socio economic band
Mulvey-Male gaze
Demographics
Montage
Realism
Binary Opposition
Social Backgrounds
Psychographics
Connotations
Globalisation
Uses and Gratification
Houses
Hyperdermic Syringe
Social Backgrounds

Critical Investigation

Working title.

To what extent does news media create moral panic and represent teenagers in a negative way that the public should fear?

Angle.

What is it that makes the viewer’s believe in the media? Surely we all know that it’s exaggerated.

Hypothesis.

Throughout the years teenage violence have been amplified and exaggerated and its imprinted an impression on the public.

Linked production piece.

‘Newsnight’ or ‘Channel 4’ news report that follows a (black) working class youth, represented in a responsible, fair, accurate way

MIGRAIN

Media language:

·         Camera shots of the characters; individual shots to get to know the character.

·         A split screen to contrast and compare the actors.

·         Wide view to see their surroundings/setting

·         Wouldn’t be much close ups as it is a documentary and not a music video or a drama.

·         Low angle shots- superiority or high angle- look down on them.

·         Non-diegetic sounds.

Institution: 

·         Media institutions like Sky News, which is partly owned by News Corporation which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

·         BBC news; a public service broadcaster

·         Uses and grats- Blumler and kats. Interactive, red button.

Genre:

·         Non fiction (but can be questionable)

·         News report

·         Formal; more realistic and believable.

Representation:

·         Stereotypes and also countertypes.

·         Representation of teenagers being loud, disrespectful, carefree, violent etc

·         The countertype: smart, educated, university, posh etc.

·         How others see young teens. Are they intimidated?

·         Representation of the intuition. Are they informative, quick, accurate?

Audience:

·         58% of Sky News viewers are men

·         Sky News is watched by a more mature audience, over 62% of viewers are 45+

·         Sky News has a monthly reach of 8.3m individuals. (http://www.skymedia.co.uk/Channels/news/sky-news.aspx)

·         ABC1

·         White, middle class.

Narrative:

·         Voice over’s to narrate what’s going on. Provides an anchor. The voice of God.

·         Opening has a summary of all the stories so the audience knows what to expect.

·         Also hooks them in to continue watching to get the full story.

·         The story is told by the reporter. Gets views from people involved i.e. victims, families local community.

SHEP:

Social:

·         Are the negative stereotypes being reinforced?

·         Who are the actual victims? Teenagers because they all have been given a negative image. Or adults who live in a world with a bunch of thugs.

Historical:

·         Bach in the 1980’s teenagers (especially females) represented as being naive.

·         Early 90’s represented as being conforming and un-sexualised .

·         Now we’re drawn a more realistic view of who they really are; loud, sexually aware, disobedient.

http://aarmanitvdrama.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/representation-of-british-youth.html

Economic:

·         Have teenagers suffered economically? EMA, increase costs of university ,protests

Political:

·         The government restricts teens. University more expensive.

Issues and Debates

Representation and stereotyping:

·         The way the media demonises the youth has left an imprint on today’s society as being ill-mannered, violent and being associated with drugs, sex and gangs. Hoodies, joggers, baseball caps, oversized shirts are a part or the iconography of the stereotyped teens. The media reports certainly does amplify stories to do with the youth like in recent events such as the protests and riots; it was all that was shown on all news channels. Where’s the success of teenagers? Their academic success? Achievements?

Moral Panic:

·         Moral panic is caused when the media exaggerates stories scaring the public. As an aexample the summer of 2011; the London riots. People were informed to stay inside and to not go outside at the fear of being attacked or robbed and also to keep children inside so they wouldn’t join the riots. The news reached all over so before long, even places that weren’t affected would have heard about it which resulted in more panic

Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century:

·         Teenagers have become massive consumers of emedia and especially social networks such as facebook and twitter.

·         Also connect through Smartphones.

·         Blackberries were a huge problem in the summer of 2011

·         Moral panic as the news go viral

·         ‘ Sexting’, sending naked pictures.

Regulation and censorship:

·         There have been rules put up to restrict the view of violence from children but what about teenagers; they’ll still be affected with what they see on the TV and on video games. It influences their behaviour and attitudes.

Theories

Audience theories: In terms of socio economics, people who watch news reports are more likely to be in the higher band of ABC1

Semiotics: this idea was introduced by Barthes and is about signs and denotations. So the denotations of the costume like hoods, caps, joggers etc. It could symbolise carefree and no respect.

Gender and Ethnicity: stereotypically what would define a violent teenager would be a young black male.

Colonialism: Due to post colonialism Alvarado distinguishes between four groups and the way teenagers are represented then they’d belong in the dangerous category.

Contemporary media Landscape

Seeing how teens are on gadgets and social networking sites, constantly updating on their social lives, it played a big part in organising crimes that happened in big groups like the London riots and the protests.

Media text

I’ll mostly be focusing on the protests that happened when the cost of university went up and EMA stopped.

Other media texts

·         London riots 2011

·         Young man speaks up to Borris Johnson

·         Movie: Anuvahood

·         Rap music videos

TV Documentaries

·         The worlds strictest parents-BBCTHREE. Shows how different cultures bring up their kids.

Articles

·         Teenage violence: Life at the sharp end- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1556148/Teenage-violence-Life-at-the-sharp-end.html

·         Teenage victims of domestic violence targeted as definition is extended http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/19/teenage-victims-domestic-violence-definition

·         London teenage violence: the death toll http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/02/knifecrime.ukguns1?INTCMP=SRCH

·         Senior police officer blames parents for teenage violence

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/aug/15/ukguns.society?INTCMP=SRCH

Teen 'stabbed through heart' at Boxing Day sales, court hears http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9628040/Teen-stabbed-through-heart-at-Boxing-Day-sales-court-hears.html

Academic Text/Books

·         Inside the mind of a teen killer- Phil Chalmers 2009. "We are living in the most violent times in recorded peacetime history."

·         The Psychology of Teen Violence and Victimization-Volume 1- Michele A. Paludi 2011. "Teenage victims are not often afforded the same resources as adult victims of physical abuse and sexual violence, and even when they are, the resources are designed to assist adult victims and are not tailored to the unique psychology of teens, who are often marginalized in our society.”

·         Page: 22. Delinquency in Society-Robert Regoli, John Hewitt, Matt DeLisi - 2009. “In the public’s mind, a few juveniles hanging out together on a street corner elicits the image of delinquent gang. While these juveniles may not belong to any formal gang, it is thei appearance that decides a person’s view.”

·         Page: 6. Youth Cultures: Texts, Images, and Identities-Kerry Mallan, Sharyn Pearce – 2003. “Theoretical stories are situated within the writers’ own personal predilections and disciplinary traditions”

·         Page 1: Crime, Justice and the Media- By Ian Marsh, Gaynor Melville, Gaynor Melville. 2009 .-“Dorfman (2001) found that over three-quarters (76%) of the public said they formed their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the news, more than three times the number of those who said they got their primary information on crime from personal experience (22%).”

·         Youth Media By Bill Osgerby: Page 1 “they are shopping for themselves, spending for all they are worth… Some of us may wonder how they get the energy, other how do they get the money.” It doesn’t need answering cos of the media stereotyping

·         Page:67 “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage” it’s still there but negative overshadows it

·         Parents, Children, Young people and the state by Sandra Shaw: Page: 90 “The notion of ‘youth’ is seen as a fairly recent invention” to serve a purpose?

·         Page: 91 “young people themselves will be aware of this negative portrayal of youth, which while it may be about the minority” minority are ‘criminals’ the majority are aware of this and could be scared.

·         Page 92 “Young people could be judged on ‘what they might do’ rather than what they actually do” if everyone would have that attitude towards everyone where will we stand in society? In fear of everyone not just the youth. So why is it only the youth?

 ·         Folk Devils and Moral Panics: 30th Anniversary Edition by Stanley Cohen. Page 26: “What had happened was inevitably going to happen again”. That what the media made it look like and that’s shown to the public, resulting in them panicking where delinquents would “strike next”

·         Representing Black Britain: Black and Asian Images on Television By Sarita Malik. Page 10: “Radicalised difference is a key feature of British race relations and has been aptly borne” because of the media showing racial differences over and over again the British audience simply just accepts it now and believes it, cultivation theory.
·         Representing Race: Racisms, Ethnicity and the Media By John D H Downing, Charles Husband. Page 9: “The mass media provide an organisational framework within which individuals interact in the context of set roles and established power hierarchies.” Because of the media’s racial ideologies its created “power hierarchies” to establish which race is more inferior.