1000 Words. Draft.

To What Extent Are Male Teenagers Negatively Stereotyped In The U.K News Media ?

Crime, alcohol, and general bad behaviour, almost every time you hear the news today, there seems to be endless supply of stories about teenagers in the UK doing negative things. Although, is this all a true reflection of teenagers life’s today, and how do they feel they are represented? A percentage of male teenagers causing crime in the UK is of course an important issue which affects various people, but does the media over exaggerate, or possibly make things worse for these teenagers by negatively stereotyping them? As part of my obligation, this is what I am trying to investigate and show good understanding about the extent of male teenagers being negatively stereotyped in the UK news media. I am going to be looking at representations of male teenagers, contrasting and comparing teenagers in the UK with teenagers out of the UK and clarifying why young males living in different countries behave the way they do. I will be looking in different contemporary and historical texts and examine the purposes as to why teenager today may act more differently to teenager 30 to 40 years ago. Whether today’s teenagers are a lot more mature than they are expected to be, but they are simply attacked and are negatively stereotyped by the UK news media. "Watch out! - I am from the evil and hated generation. Believe it or not, not every single teenager around my age goes around beating up people and smashing up cars. Can you seriously claim that today's youth are that much worse than the mods and rockers of the former generation? My generation never gets a positive thing said about them - GCSEs for example - we do better than the past generation and the courses must be getting easier - obviously. Is it really any wonder then certain youths rebel?" This quote gives an insight from a teenager themselves, telling us that not all youths are alike. Could this be true? Here I will be investigation whether the media do purposely aim to stereotype male teenagers in a negative way in the UK news media.

Crimes committed by teenagers today include things such as theft and robbery, knife crime, gun crime and vandalism. These are of course one of the worst forms of crimes, and it is a huge offence to the society for male teenagers to be getting involved with so much chaos. But it could also be argued that male teenagers may be committing these crimes as they may be in hatred from the news media, as to why they deeply negatively stereotype them.
"There has been a great deal of public discussions of the link between media violence and children's aggressive behaviour." This is one of the quotes, quoted from a book which clearly states that the link between violent teenagers and the media is really strong. Some people may argue that the media may not be broadcasting negative news about teenagers in order to teach male teenagers a lesson or make them feel dreadful, but most likely because negative and shocking news is what mainly gets people attracted to the news (bigger audience) and teenagers are the ones to fill that spot.

When contrasting teenagers in the UK, with teenagers outside the UK, there are of course a lot of general similarities, as therefore being a teenager naturally includes being a little hyper and curious about the world, which is therefore a motivation of ending up doing things that may be illegal. However, there are countries in the East of Europe, such as Ukraine and Russia, where we have had evidence of teenagers committing crimes that are 10 times as serious as crimes being committed by teenagers in the UK. “Three Guys, 1 Hammer” This an incident that started back in the summer of 2007, in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, when Igor Suprunyuck, Viktor Sayenko and Alexander Hanzha otherwise known as the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs decided that the best way to commemorate their departing childhood was to kill 40 people with hammers, pipes and screwdrivers, and record the whole thing on their phones. Around the halfway point to their lofty goal, the kids were arrested, and somehow, one of the videos managed to make its way onto the Internet. Not only did these 3 teenage boys kill people, generally the elderly, but they also killed animals, such as dogs and cats, and take pictures of the animals and their dead bodies. This does clearly show that as innocent as some teenagers may seem, they are of course capable of committing the worse crimes there is to commit. This could also indicate that because of incidents like this, typical incidents like this that happen in the Eastern European countries, may have strongly affected the minds of adults and the news media, always portraying each teenager as a dangerous thing. It could be that after finding out so much harmful material caused by teenagers, that adults may now have a huge fear, and the best way to tackle those fears is to negatively stereotyped teenagers on the news, for every single bad thing they do.

Generally, I think that the media has created a moral panic to the society about young people, where they only see teenagers as criminals, young boys wearing hoodies, who just love to spend their time robbing, attacking people, and spend most of their days on the street. Although, I certainly do not think that this is the case for all young people, and I also think that the media does not effectively show enough achievements in young people. While it is very understandable as to why the media commonly loves to emphasise and sometimes over exaggerate the horror stories that are going on out in our society as these types of stories obviously sell, so I do agree that to e certain extent, these negative stereotypes of teenagers link with business in the media.

Link 1:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/behind-the-stereotypes-the-shocking-truth-about-teenagers-421295.html

Link 2:
Kings, Chris Ed. (2000): Media Violence Alert.USA:Dream Catcher Press.

Link 3:
Gifford, Clive - Gang (2006), London - Evans Brothers Limited.

Mest 4 Xmas Work

MEST 4 Xmas Task #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpd1J6-xs3s
(Embedding disabled by request)

· Teenagers are stereotyped due to their negative representation through the news.

· Hypodermic needle model – inject ideas into a passive audience; an older audience is therefore passive as they believe what they’re told about teenagers.

· Cultivation theory – suggests that continuous exposure towards something causes the audience to become desensitised, this will perhaps be linked with a younger audience.

· Two step flow theory – more of an adult audience perhaps, people talk to each other which make the story bigger and therefore will cause the media to coverage it more.

· Uses and gratifications theory – surveillance – gathers information, gaining an insight into the circumstances of others and identifying with them (integration and social interaction) – helps find a basis for conversation and social interaction.

· News Values – negativity sells (bad news is good news!) continuity (it’s like a running story – teenagers are bad!).

· Mainstream audience – doesn’t matter about what age you are or gender or religion, it’s important to everyone.

· Because of globalisation and new technology, negative stories about teenagers are going around the world and therefore is becoming a wide spread and a moral panic to everyone in the world, with specific reference to the news media in the UK.

· Moral panics – an event occurs which generates media attention; media organisations relate this to wider social issues, media coverage increases! For example, someone gets into a fight; media relate it to gang crime, media coverage increases etc.

· “Crime booze and general bad behaviour” is the typical stereotype of teenagers in today’s society due to the representation of them in the news media, like a teenagers wearing a hoodie will bring a strong negative effect right away.

· The teenagers in the video believe that continuous negative coverage and stereotyping teenagers in that way will give teenagers “motivation to prove them wrong” (them being the media, adults, everyone that believes this moral panic!) It’s the responsibility of teenagers to change the media’s views! The media won’t do it because negativity sells a lot more.

· The media doesn’t show achievements of teenagers, it shows the negative side but hardly the positive side. Good news hardly sells.

· “Rather than actually being violent, it’s easier and better to get their anger out in a computer game” this is a quote from a teenager themselves who understand that at the time and age teenagers may release a lot of anger because of hormonal issues etc. But they are also the ones who seem to be talking about how they are planning to control their anger.

· It’s not the clothes that are going to commit a crime, it’s the person wearing the clothes, people wearing hoodies are being negatively stereotyped!

· It’s the time of user generated content – teenagers could blog positive things rather than negative things. This links to media technology and the digital revolution, changing technologies in the 21^st century.

MEST 4 Xmas Task #2

Andrews, Maggie Stevenson, Elspeth (2009): AQA Media Studies A2. London, Nelson Thornes.

“Dyer (1979) suggested that stereotypes are always about power – those with power stereotype those with less power.”
It is clear that the people working in the media are adults, and therefore they have more power over teenagers, as teenagers do not WORK for the media, so in a way, the whole issue about teenagers being negatively stereotyped in the news media could also evolve from the whole conflict between adults and teenagers.

Gifford, Clive (2005): Gangs. London: Evans Brothers.
"Some people call any group of young adults a gang."
"Gangs are often reported in the media as a modern issue, the number of teenage members of gangs has increased in many countries in the past 20 years."This shows that in a way, young teenagers are being falsely portrayed by the media, in a very negative way, it has been suggested that the media often calls any group of young adults a gang. Clearly by the word “gang” a negative impression gets raised as in the modern society gangs are one of the key reasons why crime rate may be increasing, and this therefore links to how the U.K news media, negatively stereotype teenagers.
Burton, Graeme (2005): Media & Popular Culture.Coventry,UK: Dianna ONG.
Pg. 44
"Typical behaviour from the younger generation tends to build a threatening impact to the society. Statistics of crime rate increase throughout recent years in our society also influences the media to broadcast both negative and positive information."
This quote is very biased; Dyer suggested that stereotypes are always about power – those with power stereotype those with less power, this links to my critical investigation as the media also portray teenagers to be a threat to society.
Kings, Chris Ed. (2000): Media Violence Alert.USA:Dream Catcher Press.
"There has been a great deal of public discussions of the link between media violence and children's aggressive behaviour."
"Michael Carneal, the 14 year old killer had never fired a pistol in his life, and had fired a .22 rifle at camp site. He stole a .22 pistol from a neighbour, fired a few practise shots, and took it to school."
"Corneal fired 8 shots at a high school prayer group who was breaking up."
"Firing at milling, screaming, running group of kids, he hit 8 different kids with 8 shots, five of them head shots and other three upper torsos."
All these quotes directly link to my critical investigation as it is looking at teenagers and how their lifestyle reflects the news media in the UK.
Clive, Mathew (2002): Society & Cultures. Canada: B.R Friels.
Pg.204—
"Links between violent teenagers and the media has always brought up public debates."
This again is a link between teenagers and the media, and directly focuses on my critical investigation, finding out how and why young male teenagers are stereotyped in such a way.
Wallis, Jeremy (2000): The Media. Great Britain: Heinemann Library.
"On daily basis, chaos and disturbance is caused by male teenagers. Common things in our society, the media decides to reveal these announcements on other types of media forms such as newspapers."
Dutton, Brian (2000): Media Studies-An Introduction.England: First Published 1989.
Pg.63—
"Information passed on from person to person about incidents happening within a local area are sometimes slightly changed, therefore in many occasions, the press is accused for feeding false reports."
Stewart, Colin (2001): Media & Meaning. London: British Film Institute.
Pg.84 --
"Gradually, an adult audience may sometimes be pressurised and surprisingly warned about a change in the society. The media works both ways, into broadcasting both good and bad news preventing harsh and negative stereotypes, whilst keeping their audience calm."
Winston, Brian (2005): Media Technology & Society. New York: Routledge.
“We cannot effectively protect everyone from all frightening content. Threats and crime caused in our society do come from high percentages of teenagers.”
Whilst talking about why and by whom crime is created, teenagers are automatically mentioned, therefore representing a negative image.
Wallis, Jeremy (2000): The Media. Great Britain: Heinemann Library.
"On daily basis, chaos and disturbance is caused by male teenagers. Common things in our society, the media decides to reveal these announcements on other types of media forms such as newspapers."
This links to my critical investigation as it does not only portray teenagers from single formats such as television news, but also in newspapers.

MEST 4 Xmas Task #4

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/behind-the-stereotypes-the-shocking-truth-about-teenagers-421295.html
"Watch out! - I am from the evil and hated generation. Believe it or not, not every single teenager around my age goes around beating up people and smashing up cars. Can you seriously claim that today's youth are that much worse than the mods and rockers of the former generation? My generation never gets a positive thing said about them - GCSEs for example - we do better than the past generation and the courses must be getting easier - obviously. Is it really any wonder then certain youths rebel?"
This quote gives an insight from a teenager themselves, telling us that not all youths are alike. Could this be true? Here I will be investigation whether the media do purposely aim to stereotype male teenagers in a negative way in the UK news media.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/teenagers-risk-death-in-internet-strangling-craze-1858987.html
“Children are posting videos on the internet showing them choking other youngsters to the point of collapse, in a craze that doctors warn has led to brain damage and death.”
This links to new digital media, which interferes a lot with teenager’s life, in both views good and bad as sometimes they use the internet to research and use mobile phones to record something education, but on this occasion they are being negatively stereotyped.
http://www.freechild.org/Firestarter/contents/FS1001.htm
On this website, we can see an article written from a teenager's point of view, an 18 year old arguing that teenagers are indeed negatively stereotyped in the news media, and in most occasions are therefore overly judged in a bad way. These are also the types of things that then cause plenty of negative reactions from the public. The article on this ULR specifically links to my critical investigation as I am also investigating the stereotypes made by the media about teenagers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4268796.stm
This is an article from the BBC News posted on September 2005 which talks about how adolescents are being wrongly branded as moody and troublesome. At a certain extent, the writer of the article is indeed defending teenagers, as he/she also claims that the media is being too harsh on them.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1224
This is another article but a very old one, which reveals information linked to teenagers and the media, which specific reference to older years and currents years, describing how the past generation of teenager's behaviour has changed throughout the years.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20702520/Representation-of-Youth-in-News-Media-Alana
A slide show showing various negative information about teenagers. It is mainly the first couple of slides who focuses more on the negative stereotype of teenagers made by the media. Information about young males already being dads by the age of 13 to 14, and other teenagers using the internet for illegal reasons.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/behind-the-stereotypes-the-shocking-truth-about-teenagers-421295.html
An article from The Independent newspaper posted in 2006, showing specific information about teenagers and stereotypes. There are discussions defending teenagers, and other discussions about the facts and stastics of crime commited by male teenagers.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/toolkit/stereotypes/youth_stereotypes_news.cfm
This specifically talks about the link between youths and the news media, not only showing information from the UK news media, but also discussing about media from other different countries such as Canada.

MEST 4 Xmas Task #5

Introduction.

An introduction of my task from my critical investigation, which includes a descriptive essay about young male teenagers and how they are negatively, stereotyped in the UK news media. I would be writing a little about the common representations of teenagers, what positive and negative things the majority of teenagers do, and how much are they given credit for. I may be giving a few examples of how the media portrays teenagers, and I could be doing this by research from a few articles from the guardian.

Para.2

Writing about teenagers in London and how they are stereotyped in the media today. By begging to write about some of the usual crimes that teenagers commit today, gradually linking it to the media’s opinion and whether there are any exaggerations. I would then be comparing contemporary texts to see how male teenagers are being stereotyped and put across to the audience the importances of reality opinions from teenagers themselves and on the other hand the media. I would also reference about the text “3 Guys 1 Hammer”, where 3 teenagers that live out of the UK, who are negatively stereotyped with all fairness due to numerous murders, and then link it back to teenagers in the UK and talk about the similarities and differences between teenagers within the country, and teenagers out of the country and whether the media are representing them fairly.

Para.3

In this paragraph, I could talk about the difference about teenagers today, and teenagers 30 to 40 years ago and write about how times have changed along with teenager’s behaviours. From this, I could develop my ideas and discuss whether teenagers nowadays are more mature or less mature then teenagers in the 20^th century. I could talk about whether it is the modern society that reflects teenager’s behaviours, and whether society wants today’s teenagers to be acting more mature, or whether major pressure from the media in the UK are making teenagers behave even worse. I could also use quotations from books and explain how it relates to my critical investigation.

Para4.
Within this paragraph, I would put some focus on the audience theory and write in more description about the stereotypes of young adults and possibly new representations made about teenagers from adults and why. I could include the Hyperaemic Needle Theory and discuss how the media possibly, is feeding persuasive information to the rest of the world (generally other adults), about negative portrayals on teenagers. Discuss why the negative news and aspects of life tend to be more attractive information rather than positive news and aspects. I could also link this to the creation of moral panics, and who is to blame for the main cause. "There has been a great deal of public discussions of the link between media violence and children's aggressive behaviour." Explain how and why.
"Michael Carneal, the 14 year old killer had never fired a pistol in his life, and had fired a .22 rifle at camp site. He stole a .22 pistol from a neighbour, fired a few practise shots, and took it to school." Use quotes like these from media books which underline some of the facts and importances about teenager’s behaviours and the media.

Conclusion.

Begin to close in my final thoughts and ideas about whether the media are doing the right or the wrong thing, sometimes falsely representing teenagers in the news. Typical decision could be made by looking at some contemporary historical texts. Give opinions about whether time has changed the society, and whether society is to blame for the way teenagers behave today. Etcetera.

MEST 4 Xmas Task #6

Critical Investigation:

To what extent are male teenagers negatively stereotyped in the UK news media.

Intro.
A percentage of male teenagers causing crime in the UK is of course an important issue which effects various people, but does the media over exaggerate, or possibly make things worse for these teenagers but negatively stereotyping them? As part of my assignment, this is what I am trying to investigate and show good understanding about the extent of male teenagers being negatively stereotyped in the UK news media. I am going to be looking at representations of male teenagers, contrast and compare teenagers in the UK with teenagers out of the UK and clarify why young males living in different countries behave the way they do. I will be looking in different contemporary and historical texts and examine the purposes as to why teenager today may act more differently to teenager 30 to 40 years ago. Whether today’s teenagers are a lot more mature than they are expected to be, but they are simply attacked and are negatively stereotyped by the UK news media. "Watch out! - I am from the evil and hated generation. Believe it or not, not every single teenager around my age goes around beating up people and smashing up cars. Can you seriously claim that today's youth are that much worse than the mods and rockers of the former generation? My generation never gets a positive thing said about them - GCSEs for example - we do better than the past generation and the courses must be getting easier - obviously. Is it really any wonder then certain youths rebel?" This quote gives an insight from a teenager themselves, telling us that not all youths are alike. Could this be true? Here I will be investigation whether the media do purposely aim to stereotype male teenagers in a negative way in the UK news media.

Para2.
Crimes committed by teenagers today include things such as theft and robbery, knife crime, gun crime and vandalism. These are of course one of the worst forms of crimes, and it is a offence to the society for male teenagers to be getting involved with particular messes. But it could also be argued that male teenagers may be committing these crimes as they may be in hatred from the news media, and was to why they deeply negatively stereotype them.
"There has been a great deal of public discussions of the link between media violence and children's aggressive behaviour." This is one of the quotes, quoted from a book which clearly states that the link between violent teenagers and the media is really strong. Some people may argue that the media may not be broadcasting negative news about teenagers in order to teach male teenagers a lesson or make them feel dreadful, but most likely because negative and shocking news is what gets people attracted to the news more (bigger audience) and teenagers are the ones to fill that spot.

Link 1:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/behind-the-stereotypes-the-shocking-truth-about-teenagers-421295.html

Link 2:
Kings, Chris Ed. (2000): Media Violence Alert.USA:Dream Catcher Press.