Section A

1.       Compare and contrast the two texts, with particular reference to the representation of teenagers?

In the first text ‘Metro’ there is a single black youth which is shown to be holding a gun which represents violence and lawlessness. In addition the young male seems to be wearing for costume a hat which covers half of his face suggesting he doesn’t want to be identified. In contrast the daily mail shows a group of young white males standing together in a crowd similar to the newspaper article the teenagers seem to have the face covered again with hoodies suggesting they don’t want to be identified. In addition one of the white teenagers seem to be drinking openly the idea of young people drinking connotes anti-social behaviour and excessive drinking.

2.       Consider the view that the current press treatment of teenagers is simply another moral panic?

The media represent young people as being dangerous and killers leading to Moral panic (Stanley Cohen) which is “A surge of public concern about an issue or group socially defined as dangerous, the reaction of the media is blown out of proportion compared to the actual treat the group pose” This has left many young people in society helpless as they feel they are being generalised and misrepresented “As it is, a young man in Britain today is unlikely to pick up a tabloid newspaper without seeing himself reflected as a ‘terrifying teen’ or’ heartless hoodies’ wielding a knife or binge- drinking” (The reflective view of)

“..Young people from ethnic minorities are still 26 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people”. The metropolitan police setup operation Trident in 2006 to tackle black on black violence. The government introduced ASBO’s in 2002 to tackle anti social behaviour from young people. Lastly Minister David Cameron’s “Hug a hoody” campaign in 2008 encouraged people to embrace young teenagers, This created a moral panic as young people were portrayed as violent and thugs by the politicians “Britain a nation of yobs”. The tabloid press focusing on “Our contemporary society has recently been overcome by the moral panic” this can be illustrated by social issues such as the killing of young Kiyan Prince aged just 15, who was stabbed outside London Academy in Edgware in May. He was a promising player of Queen's Park Rangers' youth team. The killing of actor Rob Knox, aged just 18 who was a promising young actor and had just finished recording Harry Potter, The Half Blood Prince

To conclude young groups of people are negatively represented in these British films due to the current economic situation of these groups of people as the ONS recorded that “36% of young people are unemployed which is roughly 200,000 young people” this alongside the recession has made it hard for young people and the working class. It could be argued young people are a burden on society as they are not in employment and not having a positive effect on the economy and society hence this could be the
reason they are negatively portrayed in the media and ultimately have to take responsibility for this negative portrayal of young people.

3.       There are always concerns about new technology. In your view, what are the possible benefits and problems attached to social networking, particularly on the Internet?

The benefits to social networking are people are able to communicate with one another. They are able to post video on to their profiles illustrating their views directly from YouTube. This can be a concern as individual can post views which may be found to be offensive, extreme or disrespectful. However YouTube regulate their content and fish out any inappropriate content anyway which eradicates any concern. Individuals can share these views with friends and family it can also be posted onto blogs which back up the content of the video in words, some may argue that this encourages Liberal Pluralism as it allows the freedom of expression and the freedom of speech and challenges the hierarchy and hegemonic values.

“The hegemonic model acknowledges that much of the media is controlled by a relatively small group of people (who are generally male, middle class and white) and that the viewpoints associated with these groups inevitable become embedded in the products themselves.”  However in reality this isn’t the case the elite and most powerful are middle aged white men according to Althusser who argues that the media is like an ‘ideological state apparatus' where the ruling class pass down their values onto society and use their social statues/position to manipulate the audience, making their views appear ‘right’. “The fact is that the media have the power through selection and reinforcement to give us very influential portrayals of a whole range of groups, situations and ideas.”  Antinio Gramsci argued that media ownership and control makes you very most influential these people are mostly made up of wealthiest middle aged men, portraying people lower down in society in such a negative way to ensure that they remain dominant in society and maintain high up in the hierarchy eliminating any sort of competition this is done through propaganda. “A dominate class or group maintain power by making everyone accept their ideologies”.  That people lower down in the hierarchy or lower down in society are easier to victimise and demonise.