Giroux
Giroux argues that in the media representations of youth become an 'empty category'
The media representations of youths are constructed by adults which reflects their concerns, anxieties and needs through their representations of youth.Because of this media representations of young people don't reflect the reality.
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Presentation plan - state how young people are generally represented, introduce the films,
O Sullivan and Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer when talking generally about media representation said:
What sense of the world does it make?
What's the implication?
Who is it speaking for/to?
What does it represent and why?
How and more importantly WHY are the representations constructed?
Youth culture presentation Script:
Introduction:
British films! I
love British films, haven't seen many, but I love them when I do, and you
should too because they tend to be grittier and (at risk of sounding like an
elitist) more "realistic" than the glamorously polished and
romanticised American movies.
However, in all
the British films I've seen there's been a trend that I've noticed... Why are
kids so scary?
*Title card
Kids in British
films are a strange case, or more specifically young people or teenagers. They
seem to be represented in one of two ways - either this *partying* or like this
*gangsta* - which is strange because I'm a teenager as of making this video and
I'm more like this *nerdy scene*.
But jokes aside,
what are the similarities and differences of young people represented in British
media?
It isn't the
stereotype I'd prefer to be associated with but there are some ways that
certain films use these characteristics, I'll be comparing two media texts to
explore this question, Attack the Block and Harry Brown, with a few other films
sprinkled in to strengthen my point.
So, let’s jump
right into it.
So, how do these
films represent young people? Well, they both have their youths acting like
thugs basically, they're antagonising, they're shady, and they have little
respect for the law or law abiding citizens, which is demonstrated by the scene
in ATB where the main gang mugs a woman at the start of the movie, like this is
how they establish these characters, they are introduced as malicious hoodlums,
bandits even!
Similarly, the youths
in Harry Brown are made up of the same traits, they too wear the dark hooded
clothes, operate in groups, mug people and speak "awl li'e dat bruv".
Following the
stereotype of those dark, scary youths to a tee.
First Theorist:
In fact, Walter Lippman
came up with the term stereotype in order to identify differences between
different things or people, and in these films, you are given clear black and
white representation of these characters compared to everyone else;
In ATB the main
characters are all dressed in black and red, colours used to convey danger,
evil and violence, and what are they specifically wearing? Hoodies and masks, clothes
universally recognized as signifiers of threatening character.
They are introduced to us in a series of fast jump cuts whilst mugging
an innocent woman which is supposed to invoke a feeling of intensity and fear
by recreating the pace of a what the film maker believes a mugging is like.
Their caretakers on the other hand, all wear brighter outfits to
show that they're good people, parents just looking after their kids.
This is also
evident in Harry Brown where I think we should take a look at who the
characters are interacting with; Harry Brown himself had a single friend, a
sweet old man who is killed around 20 minutes in by the youths who drove him to
breaking point, and the police force/detectives who are a symbol of authority
and righteousness in a community, apparently not this film's community but in
most communities.
However, when we
look at who the kids are interacting with it gets dark, there's obviously the
other youths, which is expected because, gang mentality, but there is also this
man; Stretch, the warped, drug dealer that is apparently well known by the
youths around the estate as Harry learns about him through the youths he spies
on, AND on a couple of occasion we see drugs being exchanged in broad day
light!
These black-hearted teens are also represented as territorial,
since they hold the underpass hostage throughout the majority of the film, not
to mention how in both films youths have an entire estate under their thumbs,
which, along with everything else that’s been mentioned so far, adds to their
image of malicious, domineering, predatorial, youths.
Yet there is an interesting difference in the two films
stereotypical youth cultures.
They go on different kinds of character arcs throughout their
respective films,
Harry Brown keeps them in a negative light whilst ATB gives them a
kind of redemption arc, ATB represents them as diamonds in the rough,
anti-heros.
The way they handle the antagonists of the film, the aliens,
represents them as a group of rebellious heroes that operate by a sense of
chaotic good, they see the threat, they know that exterminating that threat is
the best thing to do, yet they are completely opposed to following the status
quo.
These guys are violent thugs, but they are, in the films eyes,
heroes.
Second Theorist:
Okay, now after all how’s and what’s we finally make our way to
the WHY, why are they represented this way, and for that I’d like to talk about
my man Richard Dyer.
As for what these films youths represent I believe we’ve covered enough of that already and as for why well, that’s what you’re about to find out.
What sense of the world does it make?
The youths in both films build up a world of darkness, a world that has been taken over by negatively influenced youths.
What's the implication?
Who is it speaking for/to?
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