Youth and Culture

In what way does Buckingham and Giddens theories relate to Youth and Youth culture?

The Young Ones 1961

The Young ones (1961) illustrates a very positive representation of youth. Youth are mainly presented as happy, respectable, friendly, community activists and standing up for what they want in a responsible manner. Activism is generally associated with some public action designed to raise awareness around an issue usually related to matters of social, political or economic importance. This is particularly shown through their attempts to save their youth club from closure. The characters are also shown to be dressed in much more formal and smart clothing than modern day which provides a sense of higher class. Their etiquette and the dialects is also considerably better than today's youth, once again presenting them in a very positive perspective. Their passion seems to be singing and dancing which enhances the difference in normalities between 1961 and 2011 as the youth are seen to be running around the streets performing .

Attack the Block 2011

In comparison to The Young Ones, In Attack The Block (2011) the youthful characters are presented in an extremely negative light. They also seem to be community activists but in a much more negative way as attempt to raise awareness in regards to the alien invasion but end up causing trouble. They are seen to be considerably violent through the fact that they carry weapons with them with intent to cause harm. They also are portrayed to be rebellious through the recognition that they lie to their parent on their whereabouts and also through one of the characters being arrested towards the end of the clip due to the possession of drugs. Their use of vulgarisms and dress code provide the sense that they are significantly low in class and education which differ from the youth presented in 1961. However, a positive can be taken out of the clip as they seem to be loyal to their friends in the situation that they are put in.

Theorists

Anthony Giddens believes that there is a social structure which shapes our lives (traditions, institutions moral classes, established ways of doing things) but it relies on individuals following these structures. When they act differently the social structure can change. Structuration is the process in which human agency and social structure are in a constant relationship + social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individual people and can therefore change. It is obvious that structuration has taken place due to the different representations of youth which were deemed to be normal in their times. It is evident that youth has changed between 1961 and 2011. Also David Buckingham believes that 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. This can be deemed to be relevant due to the fact that in modern times there is much more technology and media in everyday life.

Representations of Islam

If both religions share a similar belief system, why are media representations in the West so different.

There are many similarities between Islam and Christianity in regards to their belief system. Both believe that There is only one God. He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and sent prophets. Followers of the faiths believe that people should follow the Ten Commandments and the moral teachings of the prophets and in return will be rewarded on the Day of Judgement where people will be judged. Islam and Christianity believe that there is hell as well as heaven where the good will be rewarded and the bad will be punished.

Since the 9/11 attacks in America media representations on Islam have changed drastically due to the media coverage on the Islamic followers. The view from the Western world on Islamic people is extremely negative as all Muslims are grouped as Jihadis and terrorists. Following the attacks there was a significant influx in Islamophobia where the media controversially debated the topic in a negative. This therefore caused stereotypes and generalisations to be formed on the whole religion based on only the minority which are claimed to be Muslim.These include that the religion condones and also promotes violence. This causes racism from the majority of supporters of Christianity in the western world to increase due to the representations presented by the media. The media creates these stereotypes and views by relating activities carried out by small minorities and the generalising the whole religion to be this way and therefore creating a very negative representation. These views are portrayed in a very bias fashion as well being heavily mediated as they do not take into account the vast majority of Muslims who are innocent and respectable followers of their faith, rejecting any form of this stereotype. As the 9/11 attacks was so horrific and significant in the US, it received a lot of media coverage where only the negatives of the religion a presented.

This topic can be considered to relate to aspects of Toderov's theory of equilibrium. This is because prior to the attacks, the state of the subject can be compared to the equilibrium of the theory. This is because the conflict between Islam and the western world was minimal and relaxed. Then when the attacks took place the disequilibrium was caused due to the disruption and chaos. However, this state is still ongoing which means that the new equilibrium has still not been achieved so therefore these events do not completely conform to Toderov's theory.

Representations in the media

Gender

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3500837339001/gender-equality-debate/?#sp=show-clips

In this Video from Fox News the interviewer and interviewees debate gender equality in regards to the success/income and of men and women. It is implied that women stereotypically earn less than men and therefore chose to marry 'successful men' which is proved from 'facts'. implying that if they marry less successful men that their marriages will end in divorce. It was also suggested that men look to marry women who are younger and more attractive.

http://bluenationreview.com/is-this-the-most-sexist-fox-news-clip-ever/

In this video once again taken from the Fox News channel there is a clear stereotype attached to women by Gavin McInnes. His view is very bias and subjective as he believes that women are less ambitious, better suited at home and accuses them to be pretending to like work and also choosing family over work. He goes on to state that women are emotional and also provides a stereotype of men that they earn more money than women.

Youth

According to this article in the Time Magazine British youth are violent, drunken and out of control. The front cover depicts a young man in a hoodie with mugshots of others across a Union Jack. It heading reads - "Unhappy, Unloved and Out of Control - An epidemic of violence, crime and drunkenness has made Britain scared of its young." The facial expression of the man is very serious and intense. This presents and stereotypes British youth as a whole to be extremely negatively despite this actually being the minority. The article later states that the boys and girls who casually pick fights, have sex and keep the emergency services fully occupied are often fuelled by cheap booze.

In this article from The Daily Telegraph titled Our Sick Society, three images of young suspects are used as possible looters in a riot. The fact that the newspaper chose to only include these 3 youngsters allows for generalisations to be made on youth today. This can perhaps form a stereotype to be formed, regarding the youth to be violent and immoral as they break the laws.

Islam

Once again on Fox News, controversial statements were made by the interviewee and interviewer. On this occasion it is in relation to muslims and "no-go" zones in Europe which are apparently dominated by muslims. This however isn't the case. This generalisation makes muslims seem violent as they suggest that are aggressive towards anyone who isn't a muslim. They include a clip of muslims on a train in France who are chanting, but this clip was in fact recorded 5 years prior to the show. Also they converse about women who wear burkas to hide their identities.


 

During this clip taken from Fox News the interviewee states that all 18-28 year old muslim males should be profiled and then strip searched. This is because he feels that they are a threat to civilians due to the possibility of them carrying weapons or explosives. This provides a very negative stereotype of muslims due to the actions of a minority of muslims. It is suggested that muslims are violent and responsible for terrorism, perhaps due to the 9-11 terrorist attack.

Identity

What is identity?

Identity can be argued to be something unique to each of us that we assume is more or less consistent over time. Our identity is something we uniquely posses: it is what distinguishes us from others. David Buckingham - 2008 - argues identity is complicated and complex.

Collective identity - the individuals sense of belonging to a group who share a set of traditions and values , part of personal identity.

Representation - any consideration of a 'collective identity' must take into account the role that representation plays within the construction of a media text.

not just representations from mainstream media but also through self construction by users of media

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 now consciously constructed and the media provides some of the tools to help us construct our identities. The media contains a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable lifestyles.
At the same time the public have their own diverse set of feelings. The media and media consumer are engaged in a dialogue in which neither overpowers the other.

Anthony Giddens - there is a social structure which shapes our lives ( traditions, institutions moral clades, established ways of doing things) but it relies on individuals following these structures.
When they act differently the social structure can change. Structuration is the process in which human agency and social structure are in a constant relationship + social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individual people and can therefore change.



Items that represent youth:

• Phones and technology
• Parties 
• Alcohol and drugs
• Music - 1D Justin Bieber, Stormzy
• Fashion - hoodies
• Sport - football and rugby
• Moped, bike
• Fast food

This Is England - Collective Identity

Historic
Montage
Merging with reality
Anyone watching would think this is a reflective representation

Representation of Skin heads - Woody's Gang
Befriend a random 11 year old boy
Kind

Two groups of skin heads
Woody's gang and combo's gang
Immigration
Discrimination/racism to Milky
Several left woody's group and joined Combo's
Folklands War- protecting oil reserves - Maggy Fatcher - Unified country
Young groups nave in  relation to politics and the economy
Combo - emotionally immature, at 29 years old he took advantage of a drunk 16 year old, best night of his life but not for the girl. Combo couldn't take the rejection

Milky talking about his family life relating to its sheer size 
Combo assaulting Milky and truning on his own people
Was talking to him self after the assault, shows signs of schizophrenia 

Representations - Quadrophenia - 1979 film

working class
good time - parties, music styles
not worried about careers - late
males dominant
males sexual, frustrated - when at parties and having sex they were shown to be dominant
males violent
drugs, drink
females are in it but are very secondary - supporting roles
inter-group conflict

Collective Identity - Exam Q2. -

Spectatorial - when people just watch

Participatorial  - when anyone can participate in the media world

Importance of web 2.0 allows for a participatorial society as is provides a platform for people to both create and publicise their products. People can also recreate there own versions of specific products, known as parodies, such as music videos.

Representation of women - Objectification - Objectification is a notion central to feminist theory. It can be roughly defined as the seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object. In this entry, the focus is primarily on sexual objectification, objectification occurring in the sexual realm.

Mediation - The three factors of mediation and how things can be represented.

Selection objection

Focussing

Organisation

Laura Mulvey - male gaze -  The view that the camera positions the audience in the perspective of a heterosexual male.

The camera tends to liner on the curves of the female body

Parodies - people can create many types of parodies, the ones that we watched of chandelier presented two types of parodies. 

Parody 1 - The first parody could be considered as humorous as they attempted to create a funny version of the original


Parody 2 - However, the second parody was much more serious as the subject was attempting to compare her ability to the subject in the original video.

Genre and Theorists - Exam Q1B. - 30 mins

Steve Neale - "genres are instances of repetition and difference" - 1980, aged 48
                       - "difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre" - 1980
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Tzvetan Todorov - "any instance of a genre will be necessarily different" - Cited from Gledhill 1985, aged 60
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Lacey - "repertoire is elements' that work together to suggest genre and that these are a useful framework to use for analysis"

setting
character
Narrative
Iconography
style 

But Lacey did not see genres as fixed but as dynamic and changing over time.
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Gledhill - There are no "rigid rules of inclusion and exclusion" - 1985
               - "Genre … are not discrete systems, consisting of a fixed number of listable items"

Chandler - It is difficult to make clear cut distinction between on genre and another: genres overlap, and there are "mixed genres" such as comedy thrillers - 2000
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Advert Genres

Realistic
Non-realistic
Animation
Talking Heads
Documentary
Series
Surreal
Humorous
Dramatic
Parody 
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Music Video Genre

Performance
Narrative Based
Concept Base
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Burton's Six Elements

Burton suggests that each text in a given genre shares particular key elements to make up the generic formula, these include:

Protagonists
Stock Characters
Plots and Stock Situations
Icons
Background and Décor
Themes
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Baudrillard - media represent reality and in doing so make it more visual and fun. This simulation leads to a position of hyperreality when the media starts to base representations on its own representations.                                                                                                                   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henry Jenkins

Spectatorial
Participatorial
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First para - what product i am going to talk about - Film opening 
The product which I am going to be relating to in regards to genre would be my short film opening. The genre of my film opening was Horror  which allowed me to be considerably diverse with the narrative of the product which also allowed it to appear unique. Steve Neale stated in 1980, aged 48 that "genres are instances of repetition and difference" and also explained that "difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre". This implies that products within particular genres, products have to be similar in order to allow audiences to have an idea of what to expect and to get an indication on whether they will like it or not. However, it also suggests that there still needs to be differences in order for variation and to allow the audience to actually enjoy different products of a particular genre as they all won't be identical.
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Effects THeory

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Hypodermic Needle Model

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Two-Step Flow theory Model

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Uses and Gratifications

1960s -audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts . Not being a passive mass, consume in different reasons and ways

surveillance correlation entertainment cultural transmission

For following purposes

Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine

Personal relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction

personal identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviours and values from texts

surveillance - information which could be useful for living/learning.g weather reports, financial news and holiday bargains 

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Reception Theory

Stuart Halls encoding and decoding model of the relationship between text and audience

1980 and 90

the way individuals received and interpreted text and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading.

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Narrative Theory

Meaning - Roland Barthes - texts me be open, unravelled in different ways, or closed. He also decide4ed that the threads that you pull on try and unravel meaning ate called narrative codes

Structure - Tvzetan Todorov - Texts are constructed around the basis scaffolding of equilibrium, disequilibrim, new equilibrium

Character - Vladimir Propp - produced a character typography of characters and their actions

Conflict and resolution - Claud Levi-Straus - recognised the constant creation of conflict/opposition propels narrative. Narrative can on end on a resolution of conflict.

Binary oppositions

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Stan Cohen - folk devils - group of people who are a threat to society

moral panic - leads from deviant behaviour

Deviance amplification - one deviant act initiates a spiral, more is reported

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Gerbner - mean world syndrome - cultivation theory - people who consume a lot of media, specifically TV, overestimate the amount of crime/issues in the real world.

Any one text has minimal impact on the audience but repetitiveness (drip drip) will effect the audience.

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David Buckingham - focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life, and their consequences for both individuals and for social groups.

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Demonisation of youths 

Gramski - Society is run by the ruling elite to make sure they keep their position.

Media is run by a small group who wish to maintain their position and status

hegemony - dominant ideology 

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News - people believe it is a reflective representation, no time for background story

Live TV - is not controllable or editable - or is it

social media can be used in both good and bad lights

people have the opportunity to challenge authority 

power

Steve Anderson - younger people are becoming a lot more empowered because of social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter and blogging.

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Signifier - Denotation - Codes and conventions

Signified - Connotation - this is not fixed and can change with time or society or culture.

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Fiske - 1982 - "denotation is what is filmed, connotation is how its filmed.                                        --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saussure - 1983 - " Audience can look at a media text from a syntactic point of view, just describing what they see, or from a representational or symbolic point of view where the attribute meaning to what they see.

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Barthes - 1967 - an audiences' understanding of media texts comes from their understanding and knowledge of frequently told myths or stories. He argues that the organisation of signs encodes particular messages and ideologies.

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Chandler - 2005 - says that the semiotics is important because it helps us not take reality for granted as something that can exist without human interpretation.

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Stuart Hall - argued that meaning is not fixed by the producer, and the audience is not passive, gave us different readings, the preferred reading is where the audience reads it the way that you wanted them too.

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