collective prompt 2
TRANSCRIPT
Collective Identity
Prompt Question two
The Question
• How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?
Translation
• Compare how contemporary media construct (represent) British Youth as opposed to how historical media texts constructs British Youth.
Examples
• Compare how British Youth are represented through film texts and TV in contemporary media text and historical media texts.
• Why were young people represented in a particular way? Has it changed or stayed the same?
1930s-
• Teen as a collective group was not established• Example TV programme associated with
representing young people where limited-• one example is Good Manners- • Constructed a positive representation of young
people. • Well spoken, well mannered, very polite when
addressing each other and their tone is overall very calm.
1950s-
• Rock n Roll Culture- • Approach taken by young people: Not trying to ‘fit’
into adult mainstream- happy to rebel against it-• first indication of a ‘generation gap’- • change in values and lifestyles- • Example film 1954 The Belles of St Trinian’s –• Negative representation – • synopsis- A new term opens at St Trinian's School for
Young Ladies, striking terror into the local residents and police.
1960s-70s- • sub culture to counterculture- Mods and Rockers In Britain
• Example film Quadrophenia (1979)- representation of the sub cultures
• ‘Quadrophenia‘ the Mods and rockers are represented in traditional clothing so as to be instantly recognisable and shown engaged typically getting into fights in 1960s Brighton, often involving innocent bystanders.
• A mode of behavior roundly condemned by hegemonic opinion leaders (press reports) ‘perfectly capturing the teenage need to belong and identify with their peers.‘
1960s-70s
• In 1961 the war in Vietnam started, it lasted almost 10 years and ended in 1970.
• During that time the Hippie movement first appeared.
• This movement was very peaceful. • In general these people were against the war.• Associated aspects- drugs, peace, rock, Peace
and Love and Long hair.
1970s
• Between 1974-1976 Punk Culture within young people- aesthetic and political rebellion.
• TV Programme- Hippie and Punk Cultures represented in The Young Ones produced in the1980s.-
• The main characters were four undergraduate students sharing a house: violent punk Vyvyan, pompous would-be anarchist Rick, long-suffering hippie Neil, and the smooth and diminutive Mike.
• ‘Representation of the young generation as upbeat, exciting and refreshingly fun’
Bill Osgerby
Hebidge
• Hebidge studied British youth subcultures in the late 1970s.
• youth subcultures are a way for young people to express their opposition to society, and to challenge hegemony. This is primarily expressed through style.
• Representations of young people are quite limited showing them as either fun or trouble. Again this suggests media representations of young people do not really relate to reality.
Today-
• Gang Culture/• Gangster Culture/• Chav Culture/• Drinking Culture/ • Sexualisation of young females.
Overall
• It is evident that negative representations of young people in TV and Film is not a new construction.
• The change in representation could be argued to relate to the specific sub cultures of the time period. E.g. Mod and Rockers and the representation of Youth in Quadrophenia.