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.