Out of the Box Production

 

Media representations of Youth

Young people are largely represented in terms of lifestyle and identity, with much of the music and fashion industries aiming their products at young people.

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Young people (teenagers especially) are also disproportionately likely to be represented as a problem – with a considerable amount of news coverage being devoted to youth gangs, crime and antisocial behaviour, rather than the challenges facing teenagers or the positive things young people do. Historically, youth subcultures have been the focus of media led moral panics, which have tended to exaggerate the deviance of young people and sometimes increase public panic about youth subcultures, as Stan Cohen found in his classic study of the Mods and Rockers. Charlotte Kelly (2018) has conducted research on the language used by journalists to describe young people who come into contact with the law and found there are three major types of representation:

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• Young people are dangerous.

• Young people are in need of protection.

• Young people are immature.

 

However, some documentaries do portray the complex issues young people face today, such as the recent spate of schools documentaries such as ‘Educating Essex’, etc, and in contemporary sitcoms such as 'Derry Girls'.

 

An example of representation youth in music videos can be seen below:

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This music video shows the stereotypical rebellious nature of youth. The artist of this song defies the orders of his parents and throws a house party while they are away. This also highlights teenagers stereotypical desire to constantly drink and party, without a care for any consequences that will follow. 

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Another example is:

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This music video shows a counter stereotype to the stereotypical carefree teenager. In this music video we see Justin Bieber helping people less fortunate than himself, a trait not typically highlighted in videos of young adults.