Tuesday 10 December 2013

Essay plan

How do hip-hop/rap artists such as Chief Keef represent violence, sex and drugs through their music and what is the effect on their audience.

Intro

In the intro I will be talking about the history of hip-hop culture, setting the scene by giving detailed examples of what old school hip-hop was and how it may have been anti-drugs and then as the years went on the face of hip- hop may have changed in a number of ways one by glorifying the very things it was once against. Chief Keef is a prime example of how hip-hop and rap music has changed in terms of the message being delivered; instead of a strong and meaningful message it has become defamatory towards women, glorifying violence, sex and drugs.

P1: Media representations of black people in the music industry and stereotypes present.

It can be seen within my media texts that strong stereotypes are present and are being reinforced. I will go on to discuss other texts which I have analysed such as a Chief Keef music video in which he shows dominant stereotypes of black males and will also link this to a representation theory.

Chief Keefs music videos such as “I Don’t like” reinforce the stereotypes that black males are violent, dangerous, and sexist and drug users and this is clearly demonstrated through his videos and other videos such as “All time”.


P2: Moral panic that is developed through modern day hip-hop with links to stereotypes and representations.

"A moral panic can be put into focus by the continued use of stereotypes and the public’s overreaction at a supposed threat to society” – this quote will then be linked to Chief Keef and I will discuss the representations of him and his music as well as the representations of violence, sex and drugs within his music which can eventually lead to the development of moral panic within society.

I will then discuss further the way in which moral panic revolves around the concept that a minority pose a threat to society. I will link this to Chief Keef and the way in which his music glorify guns which ultimately could pose a threat to society.


P3: Censorship and the problems

This part will be very detailed and will show examples of how well Chief Keefs videos are censored however will also discuss how badly his videos are censored. It could be argued that there’s a lot of censorship in chief keefs music with heir music videos covering guns however there will be a stronger discussion as to the lack of censorship in his music videos and how all his violent lyrics can be heard through the use of video sites such as YouTube.


P4: Gender & Ethnicity 

“Young black males are stereotyped by linking their behaviour with violent or criminal activity” – this quote will more than likely link to Chief Keef and his music as it portrays black males in a negative way by the way in which they glorify violence, sexist behaviour and drugs in their music and music videos.

I will link the ethnicity of chief keefs to the way in which he stereotyped whether he re-enforces or subverts from the stereotype I will also discuss gender and how him being a black male gives him a certain representation to society whilst linking it to a theory.


P5: Audience theories

Audience theories will help to decide whether the representations of Chief Keef are accurate or are false and have been shaped by the media in order for him to fit a certain agenda. A number of theories will be mentioned in this paragraph including the copycat theory where audiences will copy what they see and how Chief Keef himself may be an example. He looks up to rappers such as Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka who are also notoriously known for glorifying the same things Chief Keef does (Sex, drugs, money and guns) I will also link this to the bobo doll experiment and alvarodos theory.


I will be linking the audience theories to other media aspects such as the hypodermic needle and the way in which Chief Keef may inject a message into the audiences’ brain especially younger audiences as they are arguably more influential. From my research I have been able to obtain videos of kids acting recklessly whilst listening to chief keefs music and so arguably chief keefs music is having a negative impact on the younger audience.


P6: Conclusion

Chief keefs music is negative! he is a negative stereotype

Monday 9 December 2013

Bibliography

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM45_read_rap.html

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM45_read_rap.html
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T5F8DPsejs
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eppLEoFpCHw&safe=active
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eppLEoFpCHw&safe=active
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eppLEoFpCHw&safe=active
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/27/17485146-anti-violence-campaign-draws-criticism-for-rapper-chief-keef-photo
http://raprehab.com/interscope-records-the-real-gangsters-of-gangsta-rap/
http://raprehab.com/is-hip-hop-destroying-black-america/
http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/negative.htm
http://blackexcellencex.wordpress.com/tag/gbe-gang/
http://www.debate.org/opinions/does-modern-rap-and-pop-music-have-a-negative-influence-on-children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLOzNp4vmN8
http://www.tmz.com/2013/05/21/chief-keef-arrested-disorderly-conduct-atlanta-georgia/
http://www.tmz.com/2013/05/21/chief-keef-arrested-disorderly-conduct-atlanta-georgia/#ixzz2lI3KbfiQ
http://raprehab.com/interscope-records-the-real-gangsters-of-gangsta-rap/
http://raprehab.com/is-hip-hop-destroying-black-america/
http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/negative.htm
http://blackexcellencex.wordpress.com/tag/gbe-gang/
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01973533.1995.9646099
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01544683#
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=61724
http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/19/2/195.short



http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01544683#page-1







Monday 25 November 2013

Media Magazine for Critical investigation

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM45_read_rap.html

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM45_read_rap.html

Bristolian rapper David Aidoo, aka ThisisDA, considers what’s important in ‘reading’ the meaning of music. Is it the lyrics, the rhymes, the beats – or the intensity of the emotion created in the listener? Does music have meanings you can analyse – or is it an experience you feel?

Thursday 21 November 2013

Amazon Research for Critical Investigation x 10

AMAZON







Google Scholar for My Critical Investigation x 10

Google Scholar

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of exposure to rap music on the attitudes and perceptions of young African-American males. Subjects u were exposed to violent rap music videos, nonviolent rap music videos, or no music videos (controls). They read two vignettes, involving: (a) a violent act perpetrated against a man and a woman, and (b) a young man who chose to engage in academic pursuits to achieve success, whereas his friend, who was unemployed, "mysteriously" obtained extravagant items (i.e., a nice car, nice clothes). Results indicated, first, that when compared to subjects in the nonviolent exposure and control conditions, subjects in the violent exposure conditions expressed greater acceptance of the use of violence. Second, when compared to subjects in the control condition, subjects in the violent condition 'reported a higher probability that they would engage in violence.

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of exposure to nonviolent rap music on African American adolescents' perceptions of teen dating violence. African American male and female subjects were exposed to nonviolent rap videos (which contained images of women in sexually subordinate roles) or they saw no videos. They read a vignette that involved teen dating violence perpetrated by a male.

Hip hop's capacity to circumvent the constraints and limiting social conditions of young Afro-American and Latino youths has been examined and celebrated by cultural critics and scholars in various contexts since its inception in the mid-1970s. For instance, the 8 February 1999 issue of US magazine Time featured a cover photo of ex-Fugees and five-time Grammy award winner Lauryn Hill with the accompanying headline ‘Hip-Hop Nation: After 20 Years – how it's changed America’. Over the years, however, there has been little attention granted to the implications of hip hop's spatial logics. Time's coverage is relatively standard in perceiving the hip hop nation as a historical construct rather than a geo-cultural amalgamation of personages and practices that are spatially dispersed.

he purpose of this study was to determine the effects of cognitive distortions concerning women on sexually aggressive behavior in the laboratory. Twenty-seven men listened to misogynous rap music and 27 men listened to neutral rap music. Participants then viewed neutral, sexual-violent, and assaultive film vignettes and chose one of the vignettes to show to a female confederate. Among the participants in the misogynous music condition, 30% showed the assaultive vignette and 70% showed the neutral vignette. In the neutral condition, 7% showed the sexual-violent or assaultive vignette and 93% showed the neutral vignette. 




In two experiments, primed subjects were exposed to violent and misogynistic rap music and control subjects were exposed to popular music. Experiment 1 showed that violent and misogynistic rap music increased the automatic associations underlying evaluative racial stereotypes in high and low prejudiced subjects alike. By contrast, explicit stereotyping was dependent on priming and subjects’ prejudice level. In Experiment 2, the priming manipulation was followed by a seemingly unrelated person perception task in which subjects rated Black or White targets described as behaving ambiguously. As expected, primed subjects judged a Black target less favorably than a White target. By contrast, control subjects rated Black and White targets similarly. Subjects’ level of prejudice did not moderate these findings, suggesting the robustness of priming effects on social judgments.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01544683#page-1


http://gpi.sagepub.com/content/5/2/133.short
In two experiments, primed subjects were exposed to violent and misogynistic rap music and control subjects were exposed to popular music. Experiment 1 showed that violent and misogynistic rap music increased the automatic associations underlying evaluative racial stereotypes in high and low prejudiced subjects alike. By contrast, explicit stereotyping was dependent on priming and subjects’ prejudice level. In Experiment 2, the priming manipulation was followed by a seemingly unrelated person perception task in which subjects rated Black or White targets described as behaving ambiguously. As expected, primed subjects judged a Black target less favorably than a White target. By contrast, control subjects rated Black and White targets similarly. Subjects’ level of prejudice did not moderate these findings, suggesting the robustness of priming effects on social judgments.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447759/

Rap music videos are a media genre that is attracting considerable attention. Rap music has evolved from African American music forms, with influences from rhythm and blues, fusion, contemporary gospel, and bebop. Although there is considerable concern regarding the themes and images expressed in rap music videos, limited empirical research has examined the effect of rap music videos on adolescents’ behaviour.

Google Advanced Searches for Critical Investigation x 6

Google advanced searches

The image prompted an instant backlash from people who thought the rapper with often violent lyrics had no place in an anti-violence ad, with one commenter calling on Keef to "repent of his messages of murder and drugs."

When news of his 2011 arrest hit the streets his then unknown anthems “Bang” “3HUNNA” and “I Don’t Like” became the soundtrack of the city where the murder rate has increased 38%in the past six months.

Is Hip Hop Destroying Black America? To answer this question fairly, we must first discard the distorted image of Hip Hop that mainstream media has passed off for the past 20 years. Hip Hop is a movement consisting of 4 main artistic elements: DJ’ing, Rapping, Breaking and Graffiti. But at its core, it is a philosophy based on the idea that self-expression is an integral part of the pursuit of peace, love and unity. 

In April 1992, Texan Ronald Howard was driving through the state in a stolen car. He was pulled over by state trooper Bill Davidson for a possible traffic violation and became uneasy about the stolen car. During the encounter, Howard removed a nine millimetre Glock pistol from his glove compartment and shot officer Davidson, killing him at the scene. At the time of the incident, Howard had a pirated copy of the tape 2Pacalypse Now playing in his automobile's cassette deck. This album, performed by Tupac Shakur, and produced by Atlantic Recordings and Inters cope Records, both subsidiaries of Time Warner, Inc., also contained similar gangster rap lyrics and messages (this recording occurred before Tupac signed with Death Row Records). One specific song on the 2Pacalypse Now album titled "Crooked Ass Nigga" talks about a frightfully similar situation to the one that took place between Howard and Davidson.

  Annual Chicago police statistics show a majority of both homicide victims and offenders are young black men with criminal records… A deeper review of the numbers shows males ages 15 to 35 made up nearly three-quarters of African-American homicide victims…

http://globalsiteplans.com/environmental-design/communityeconomic-development/chief-keef-and-chicago-illinois-murder-rate-the-glorification-of-youth-violence/
Mostly by coincidence the summer radio airwaves were gripped by a new voice in hip hop, that of teenage rap sensation Chief Keef. The sixteen-year-old’s breakthrough hit “I Don’t Like” features numerous gunshot noises and the percussive annunciation of “bang bang” by Keef and his associates, as he proceeds to list the things he, well, doesn’t like. The question remains whether Chief Keef is merely reflecting the violent environment he grew up in, or whether he is glorifying a violent lifestyle. David Drake and David Turner, writing in Complex Magazine, argue that Keef is a product of his environment, but that his fame carries with it new responsibility:




Monday 18 November 2013

Review Critical Investigation

WWW: whats gone well so far is that i have been able to collect a great amount of research and have also been obtain the source of my research will make my bibliography much easier.

EBI: i have not carried out nearly as much of analysis as i should have and have not made as much progress as i wanted to have done by now. below are a list of other targets
More in depth sources
Use a wider range of sources and begin to use media magazine more
Speed up productivity

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Notes & Quotes 2000 Words

My notes and quotes has been created in order to give me a detailed and very useful list of sources that relate to my media investigation below are links of sites than contain information and theorys relevant to my critical investigation and will be used for my essay.

To start this off i have carried out detailed research to find out what is so violent and sexist in chief keefs music as well as the content of which he talks about drugs and have found some of his lyrics relating to these topics:

"Shoot a nigga then act like its nothing" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T5F8DPsejs
"im always stoned, im all high" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eppLEoFpCHw&safe=active
"i hate being sober, ima smoker" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNMuIPsz6lE&safe=active
"I fucked that bitch but i dont know remember her name" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eppLEoFpCHw&safe=active
"what you smoking on i need a blunt of that shit" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLZtcfFObso
"I had a threesome with a millionare different hoes today" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLZtcfFObso



Chief keef was also involved in some contraversy with Katy Perry Threatening to smack her.



In fact he has been involved with a number of controversy including lupe fiasco and even the death of another Chicago rapper


The image prompted an instant backlash from people who thought the rapper with often violent lyrics had no place in an anti-violence ad, with one commenter calling on Keef to "repent of his messages of murder and drugs."

When news of his 2011 arrest hit the streets his then unknown anthems “Bang” “3HUNNA” and “I Don’t Like” became the soundtrack of the city where the murder rate has increased 38%in the past six months.
Is Hip Hop Destroying Black America? To answer this question fairly, we must first discard the distorted image of Hip Hop that mainstream media has passed off for the past 20 years. Hip Hop is a movement consisting of 4 main artistic elements: DJ’ing, Rapping, Breaking and Graffiti. But at its core, it is a philosophy based on the idea that self-expression is an integral part of the pursuit of peace, love and unity. 
In April 1992, Texan Ronald Howard was driving through the state in a stolen car. He was pulled over by state trooper Bill Davidson for a possible traffic violation and became uneasy about the stolen car. During the encounter, Howard removed a nine millimetre Glock pistol from his glove compartment and shot officer Davidson, killing him at the scene. At the time of the incident, Howard had a pirated copy of the tape 2Pacalypse Now playing in his automobile's cassette deck. This album, performed by Tupac Shakur, and produced by Atlantic Recordings and Inters cope Records, both subsidiaries of Time Warner, Inc., also contained similar gangster rap lyrics and messages (this recording occurred before Tupac signed with Death Row Records). One specific song on the 2Pacalypse Now album titled "Crooked Ass Nigga" talks about a frightfully similar situation to the one that took place between Howard and Davidson.

  Annual Chicago police statistics show a majority of both homicide victims and offenders are young black men with criminal records… A deeper review of the numbers shows males ages 15 to 35 made up nearly three-quarters of African-American homicide victims…

Source: 
 I think it all depends on the music. Like what lincoln.Douglas07 wrote,"Well if you're rapping about money, drugs, sex and all that it forms an impression on kids." I agree.
But it seems like every year they push it even farther. Profanity after profanity. Then you have some that say well the parents should stop children from listening to it, Well its kind of hard with all this technology and if their friends listen to it. So how can you stop your child from hearing it when they go all the others listen to it.
However the opposing side argued that - Raps got a bad rep!
I have been listening to rap since the mid 80s up to 2004. It has never once pushed me to do anything! Music effects people in different ways not everyone isnt the same. It's not rap that's ruining kids. Parents just need to be more involved with their kids life.

Debate as to whether music influences the youth or not - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLOzNp4vmN8

I have to put out the bad parts of Hip-Hop at least once though.
When you turn on the radio, most of the music you hear tends to be related to drugs, sex or alcohol.
This is the type of music that is exposed to teenagers today. Much of main stream hip hop and rap mostly contains themes of immoral activity. Yes, the bad words are bleeped out, but the message is still there, and it is the younger teens (12-16) that listen to the radio more often. Therefore, they are more easily put in to the mindset that if Weezy is doing it, we can too, and even assume they are cool doing so.
Hip hop and rap lyrics are so catchy, and they become embedded in our minds, to the extent where they potentially motivate our actions. Gangster rap usually reflects inner city life, glorifying criminal activity and degrading women.
It’s ironic that even though most rappers and hip hop singers show women in a sexual, degrading light, women still pine for them. It almost seems like the majority of today’s younger women are okay with being portrayed like that. Most teenagers memorize and constantly repeat the words of rappers, and for those words to be promoting alcohol, weed and sex just destroys the morals instilled by their parents.
Rap and Hip Hop also promotes a thug lifestyle, one that centers on not fulfilling an education, but instead doing drugs, and spitting rhymes while doing so. Though not all rap and hip hop focuses on these themes; most of old rap speaks of getting through hardship. The whole “get paid and laid” idea is more geared toward the newer generation rap and hip hop.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/05/21/chief-keef-arrested-disorderly-conduct-atlanta-georgia/

After the arrest, Keef tweeted, "Jus Got Out Of Dekalb County jail In Atlanta Mad As f**k."

Keef is considered a prodigy -- and has rapped with huge stars like 50 Cent and Wiz Khalifa.

Keef is no stranger to the law ... he's been arrested at least two times before -- and even has a gun conviction under his belt. 

It's been a rough year for the rapper ... We broke the story, he was recently sued for child support​ by his middle-school-aged baby mama who claims Keef fathered her kid -- born in 2011 -- when he was only 15.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2013/05/21/chief-keef-arrested-disorderly-conduct-atlanta-georgia/#ixzz2lI3KbfiQ


Monday 30 September 2013

Year 13 Critical Investigation Proposal

Working title

The title of my critical investigation is - "How are violence, sex and drugs represented in Rap music through artists such as ‘Chief Keef’ and what is the effect on the audience?" I chose this question as I felt it was something i was passionate about and I liked looking into the representations. 

Angle


The angle I am focusing on looks into how hip hope music affects audience particularly in a negative way on younger audience aged 16-21. In order to help me with this I will be looking into representational theories as my critical investigation focuses on music artists such as Chief Keef. I will also be looking into different things such as audience pleasures and desensitization.


Hypothesis


Ultimately they are represented in a very negative way, rap music is sometimes seen in a positive way however the new generation of inspired rap music has perhaps created a negative misrepresentation of rap music as a whole.

Linked production piece

News style documentary on the effect rap music has had on certain people (Biased and negative)

Interview with rapper can respectively give an alternate view to the negativity surrounding rap music

MIGRAIN


Media representations
My investigation focuses on Chief Keefs music videos particularly – ‘Love sosa’ which is a video that has struck the younger audience particularly. He is presented as a gangster and a criminal as well as talking about killing enemies and portraying women as sex objects which arguably is the dominant representation of women within the hip hop industry.

Media audiences
The audiences for the chief keef video attract those who are able to identify to the rapper chief keef and so those who live or lived the in the same geo-demographic as him in Chicago. The primary audience for this would be male teenagers aged 18 who aspire to be like chief keef as well as those who have a socio economic classification of E.

Media institutions
As expected the institution behind the record has a great impact as to the final outcome of the video. The institution need chief keef the artist to target his audience to the best of his abilities and also reach out to larger audiences in order for them to be considered successful and so they place certain iconography in the video such as guns in order for this to take place.

Genre
The genre of this can go under hip hop and rap however is considered to be ‘trap’ which is a new type of music that the younger generation call when they listen to music associated with murder, crime and violence. Confirmation of these genres is through the

SHEP

SOCIAL –
The video has a social impact on men. It creates a social pressure for those chief keefs age to dress and act like him by acting in a similar way to him by pursuing a violent and sexist nature in order to fit in with the society.

HISTORICAL –
This video has quite a historical impact as there has been many representations in the past of things that chief keef presents in his video such as a sexist attitude towards women as well as violence within those regions of Chicago and other parts of America. As well as this another historical impact this video has is the dominant black male representation which has been around for a long while that they are dangerous and criminals and this video is able to present this historical representation.

ECONOMICAL –
It is arguable that there is a certain pressure upon rap artist to reach out to a larger demographic in order to obtain sales and make money by appealing to the audience’s needs.

POLITICAL -

Apply the Wider Contexts to your text/topic, including at least three bullet points on each one.


Issues/Debates
As expected their are many stereotypes and representations within chief keefs music and so i will pick 5 and explain how they link to my media study.
The first is black males stereotype this relates to my study as chief keef himself is a black male and so it means that he could be considered a criminal and dangerous due to this stereotypes and also by his lyrics

The second is moral panic, chief keefs music can create moral panic as his music is being spread rapidly amongst a huge demographic and he has been affiliated with many unlawful activities and thus means moral panic amongst parents as to if their children will be influenced takes places.

This debate of tv regulation takes place within chief keefs music some of the things presented in his video such as guns are shown in his video without being censored and so the audience is able to see everything, this cause a negative effect on the audience.


Evaluation of my presentation B-


  • How your research contributed (or failed to contribute) to the presentation
  • The delivery of the presentation
  • The topic area chosen
  • How you plan to develop the presentation into an extended academic essay
How did my research contribute (or fail to contribute) to the presentation?

My research was essential to my presentation. If I was to have carried out very little research it would mean that my topic knowledge would be poor. I carried out a great amount of research in depth so that I was able to understand the key topic and to ensure that I am confident and am able to flow well.

The depth that I went into showed a passion in my topic as well as allowing me to talk about more.In addition to this I wanted to be able to come up with a conclusion to my question even if it was brief.

The delivery of my presentation













Power presentation

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9-7sIdUryVHWTlGeVNnTVZ2RUE/edit?usp=sharing

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Feedback

WWW: Good pace, articulate, some good terminology, good slides, confident, flowed, range of sources, covers key concept knowledge, referred question conclusion good theory.

EBI:  consider audiencetheory more subtly eg uses/gratifications, feminist theory. only 17 slides.

Thursday 11 July 2013

Music in E-media Tutotiral

How do rappers such as "Chief Keef" use e-media to promote and distribute music

Youtube
Social Networking sites such as facebook and twitter
worldstarhiphop.com
Own official website - GBE300.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgscLFvi2yg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUdHolo3bpc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA0PUQOW7S0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOFe8rgcGro&safe=active

Monday 8 July 2013

Presentation subject

  • Brainstorm five possible media texts you could choose as your presentation subject. (The platform can be TV, film, print, online).
My five possible topics:

Music in e-media
Teenagers and the media
Social networks
Piracy
Traditional media vs. the new media

  • Take your five possible ideas and choose the best three with reasons for their selection. Try to include at least five reasons for each, outlining what you know about the text/topic so far.

Music in e-media
Reasons why I chose this topic:
- Lots of representation 
- Different types of music for different target audiences
- Many ways of promoting through different types of e-media
- corrupting the youth debates and controversy 

Research:
The link below is a statistic from a questionnaire asking whether modern rap and pop music has a negative influence on the minds of children.


YouTube and Social networkings sites such as facebook help to promote music through the platform of e-media. Others include viveo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WcRXJ4piHg&safe=active
This video above is an example of music promoted through e-media could help influence young teenagers in a negative way. The video shows a rapper glorifying drugs, money and firearms in his music video 'I don't like' which managed to accomplish over 27million views.

Teenagers and the media
Reasons why I chose this topic:
- Lots of negative stereotypes
- Misconceptions 
- Teenagers controlling e-media
- Different representations amongst all types of platforms

Research:


Traditional media vs. the new media
Reasons why I chose this topic:
- Old media such as newspapers, radio
- New media through the internet
- Subject of debate: Traditional media is dying
- Different audiences, the new media appeals to a younger audience

Research:


Sunday 30 June 2013

250 word summary

My question was:
To what extent does news media create moral panic and represent teenagers in a negative way that the public should fear? 

In my group was Shivani & Ashwaria, we had a thorough discussion into a number of things including the stereotypical representations of youths today as well as the positive and more latent portrayal of them in the media. A key hypothesis that we came up with was this; Teenagers of today are more than often represented in a negative way within the media because it provides them with something to talk about (which could be due to the high level of controversy surrounding the matter). Everybody in our group agreed with that to a certain degree. 

We also agreed that the media at times does present the youth of today in a positive manner at time and went on to give a numerous amount of examples including BBC News's youth clubs where they present children in a positive light. However on the other hand we did discuss Perkins theory which states that stereotypes do contain some element of truth which may apply for this scenario as teenagers are able to be both mischievous and at time dangerous.

Finally we discussed the way that different audiences would interpret and used the example of riots, if an older audience were to see on the news that a riot had occurred in their local area involving teenagers they would automatically assume that all teenagers  are hooligans and 'hoodrats' which is a platform for more stereotypes to be built.