Attack the Block - Applying Theory

Youth
Gangs
Vulgarisms
violence
assault
crime
weapons
language
clothing
location
class
culture
no respect
drugs
rebellion
rap music
youth assumably in the wrong
Anti - hero

Buckingham - The media do not just offer us a transparent window on he world but a mediated version of the world. They don't present reality they represent it. This statement is extremely relevant to the film as it is not a true reflection of youth. Instead it generalises youth to be the same as small minorities which actually are true to the negative representation. 

Gauntlett - Identity is now consciously constructed, adnd the media provides some of the tool to help us construct our identities. This is relevant as the film presents a very negative stereotype  which spectatorial audiences can chose whether to follow. Consumers can interpret the content how they chose, either distancing themselves or agreeing with the representation.

Giroux - Giroux's statement that 'youth becomes an empty category in representation and reflects adult concerns' becomes relevant to Attack the Block as there are many adults in the film that show fear in regards to youth. The youth presented in the film are negatively presented in an extreme fashion which is the worst case scenario. 

 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 through the way that they are presented through negative texts. 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. Whereas In Attack The Block (2011) the youthful characters are presented in an extremely negative light.  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. 

G325 Exam Prep - Section 1

Identify Digital Technologies that you have used to construct media texts - Year 1 and Year 2. What new technologies have you learnt?

Year 1
DSLR Camera
GoPro
External Boom Mic
Adobe Premier Pro - CCTV Film Grain, split screen

Year 2
DSLR Camera - Variation of lenses, varying frame rates
Drone
Adobe Premier Pro - Colour Correction, Motion/movement keying facilities, Stabilising  Brightness/Contrast,
Adobe Speedgrade
Logic X - editing soundtrack, audio
Photoshop
InDesign
Twixtor - failed

Explain what is meant by 'collective identity' and the role of media in its construction.

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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Demonisation of youths 

Gramsci - 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 

Gauntlett

 Time Magazine British youth are violent, drunken and out of control

Collective identity is an individuals sense of belonging to a group who share a set of traditions and values , part of personal identity. It has to be taken into account the role that representation plays in forming these collective identities. Identity is deemed 'complex and complicated' by David Buckingham who also believes that 'the media do not offer us a transparent window of the word, but a mediated version of the world'., which can be furthered to mediation. Mediation is the ways in which the media reconstruct reality and present a certain perspective to the viewers, often rejecting the truth. It contains three factors and ways in which content can be presented; these are selection objection, focussing and organisation. Therefore many social groups suffer from misrepresentation and therefore result in spectatorial audiences believing the views presented, even when they're negative and an image is formed around a specific social group. This relates to the Hypodemic Needle Model which focusses on people taking in content passively. 

The youth is continuously gaining negative coverage by the media which have seemed to worsen after the London Riots in 2011. When considering Stan Cohen 's Deviance amplification theory which suggests that one deviant act initiates a spiral or attention, the London Riots can be regarded as the initiation of the downward spiral of negative media coverage on youth.The theory is also relevant as youth is seen as a group of people who are a threat to society and therefore cause moral panic.  Along with many other media texts, a stereotype is beginning to be formed on youth which is very negative and untrue and only is relevant to minorities of youth. The representations used by the media can be considered to be untrue, and in fact reflect adult concern (Giroux). A media text which conveys youth in this particular perspective would be the film 'Bullet Boy' made in 2004. This film is based in London where violence, crime, drugs and vandalism feature heavily. A young black male is released from prison for stabbing and despite his best attempts to rejuvenate his life he gets dragged back into trouble through loyalties with other youths. Also the audience see his younger brother being introduced to the culture and following in the brothers footsteps as he rebels at school and also accidentally shoots his friends whilst playing with a firearm. The film concludes with the main character accompanying his friend with attempted murder, ultimately resulting in him being killed himself due to his association. The activities presented in the film reinforce the negative representations of youth and to a spectatorial audience these stereotypes could be deemed to be correct, and further enhancing their fears. This can be related to Gerbner's 'Cultivation Theory' which believes. "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television"

In opposition to this, 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. Between then and now it is evident that structuration has taken place, a theory suggested by Anthony Giddens where social systems change and transform and an overall shift occurs in the normality.Ill Manors

Young ones
structuration - Giddens
Attack the Block