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The Media simply holds up a mirror to what is happening in society With reference to the group you have studied, comment on whether you agree or disagree.Back in the 1960s when television screens were flooded with images of the Mods and Rockers, Stan Cohens study served as a crucial piece of research questioning the intense media publicity. Cohen argued that the media talked up the disturbances into a bigger moral panic and also played a role in deviance amplification: in reporting the phenomenon as if everyone is involved making it more attractive to those who might not otherwise have thought about becoming involved. Folk Devils and Moral Panics- Stan Cohen 1972 Today we can easily find contemporary examples of a moral panic, the most relevant one for me being the demonisation of youths. The media may try to mirror the happenings of society but that mirror is largely distorted as Zindzi Rocque- Drayton argues in his article. Tottenham Labour MP Lammy said that a familiar limited portrait is shown of his area and it perpetuates a particular imagery and context. The Mayor of Hackney shared similar concerns and refused to allow the filming of Top Boy as he did not want to see the criminality of a small minority portrayed, with the risk that the wider viewing audience wont realise that it isnt the everyday life of most people. Keeping it reel: Urban film and the riots- Zindzi Rocque Drayton This depicts that actions of a small minority are resulting in an entire area being negatively labelled. Whenever the youth are represented in the press, the terms which repeatedly spring up are feral, yobs, monsters and the term riots rather than, for example, civil disturbances or protests. These words with their wild connotations are attached to the youths and the Women in Journalism study revealed that eighty- five percent of the youths surveyed believed newspapers portrayed them in a bad light. Wome in Journalism survey Despite the fact that youth offending, youth detention and reoffending have declined in recent years, the 2005 IPSOS/ MORI survey found that forty percent of newspaper articles featuring young people focused on violence, crime or anti social behaviour; and that seventy- one percent could be described as having a negative tone. More recently, a study by the organisation Women in Journalism analysed more than seven thousand stories and found seventy- two percent to be negative, more than twenty times the number of positive stories (3.4%). The few stories describing the boys in glowing terms, angel, model student, were of boys who had met an untimely death.The selections of images on newspapers and on film posters perpetuate a negative and exaggerated identity of the feral youth. The iconic symbol of the hoodie recurs constantly on film posters such as Attack the Block, Kidulthood, Fish Tank and Eden Lake conjuring up an image in the minds of audiences that all youths dress in the same threatening manner. During the summer 2011 riots across the UK, an image of one black, hooded young man appeared on at least five front pages which targeted young working class individuals. Images have a negative representation also and Professor Buckinghams article explains how those involved in the disturbances were obviously a small minority, yet in much of the media coverage, they came to stand for Young people. Despite this, young people achieved record passes in their GCSE and A Level exams. Furthermore, the middle class youths involvement was brushed to one side and articles of the Oxford graduate and the Doctors daughter were not presented negatively in the media. Theres a riot going on- David Buckingham Professor of Education at Loughborough University (Media Magazine) The Daily Mail headline A star pupil from 1m home. How did she end up in the dock? reveals how when the middle class youth commit crimes, the media look at it as a one off incident. On the other hand, when working class people committed the same crime, media headlines were more The yob rule (The Independent)The tower block backdrops in the Attack the Block and Fish Tank posters make it as if all youth live in deprived council estates. Harry Brown director Daniel Barber failed to recognise the positive aspects of living in a close knit council estate for example feeling part of a community. In his opinion, theyre like prison cells. But whole families live in them in squalor. In his film he reflected this through the use of low key lighting to present a claustrophobic and menacing environment. Black aggression is depicted through positioning the Black characters in the middle of the group implying that the Black members lead the group and are the more violent as they are seen to be holding the weapons in the posters (Attack the Block and Kidulthood). The Independent article by Richard Gerner argued that there is a lack of recognition for any groups other than Hoodies in the press and it seems as if there is a culture of fear perpetuated by the media which is interesting because even the youth themselves are afraid of each other (29% Women in Journalism survey). This is ironic as headlines of gang crime present the view that the youth are afraid of nobody.Zindzi Rocque- Drayton stresses the predominance of black characters in the British Film Industry and argues that it can be misleading to some who may make the assumption that that is everyday black British life. Actor Ashley Walters explains how all films focus on negative stereotypes of youth as it all depends on whats going to make money at the box office. The media speaks to the anxieties that many people already have and films like Harry Brown and Eden Lake which attack the violent underclass, an outcome of Broken Britain, heavily negatively stereotype all youth as being a threat to society.Conversely, although the representation of youth in the media may be an exaggeration focussing on the negative aspects, it would be wrong say the stereotype is false as media stereotypes always contain a grain of truth (David Buckingham Media Magazine). The label of feral and monsters wild beasts was conformed to in the summer 2011 riots where the youth were displayed as out of control doing little to shift away from the negative stereotype. The Guardian headline The battle for London was an accurate description of the horrific violence that took place where extreme measures such as water cannons and thoughts about bringing the army took place to tame the youth. Moreover, the 2005 IPSOS/ MORI survey only found that forty percent of newspaper articles focus on violence, crime or anti- social behaviour when featuring youth because youth crime has indeed increased dramatically, 9.5% from 2010 to 2011.In TV drama Top Boy, Walters argues that it was made as authentic as possible. Although it may seem sensational or glamorised- people having their fingers cut off...being shot in the head, and having no value for life- but that is a lot of peoples everyday life. Barbers admission that hes scared of these kids in gangs is voiced in his trailer, Harry Brown when a character says Im scared of these kids Harry accurately reflecting the universal fear of many people. The anti school attitude displayed in the Kidulthood trailer is mimetic of the one in six 16-24 year olds who are neet (not in education, employment or training) according to statistics published by the Department for Education 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/23/almost-1m-young-people-neets The council estates in the background of the posters are the focal settings in the trailers and posters only because a large proportion of working class youth are living in those deprived areas.The non-diegetic and diegetic music, rapping, in the Kidulthood trailer connects the youths with a music genre notorious for its violent and offensive lyrics. The Daily Mirror for example blamed the pernicious culture of hatred around rap music, which glorifies violence and loathing of authority (especially the police but including parents), exalts trashy materialism and raves about drugs. The popularity of the music genre in the real world was mirrored in the reel world thus presenting a true picture of the significance of rap music in the lives of youth todayThe media simply does hold up a mirror to what is happening in society but a mirror which shows the worst and most exciting aspects of society. This may be the consumers fault and our desire to hear the horrific stories, but I feel the negative tone of newspaper articles coupled with the selection of dramatic images contributes to fuelling the negative stereotype of youth today. Although Walters argues that the purpose of TV drama is to simply get a message across, I feel his opinion that scenes with people cutting fingers is a lot of peoples way of life everyday is completely absurd. The sweeping generalisations that are being made of youth today as a result of the actions of a small minority depicts that the mirror the media are holding up is largely distorted.