How the youth are represented in the London Riots

The Guardian 09/08/2011 (http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/09/london-riots-kids-parents-police)

Title: “A generation”- This signifies that the writer of the article is making an accusation of all teenagers and young people, generalising that they are all the same instead of individuals. This connotes that the writer is likely exaggerating the article and making the participants in the riots a lot larger than what they seem. “Don't respect their parents or police”- This connotes that the younger people are the ones to blame, cutting the law and parents out on who's to blame. This is questionable since some sources claim that it was the police/law that killed an innocent man (Mark Duggan) which sparked off the riots with them to blame. This all equates to connotations of bias on the writers part due to them shifting the blame.

Sub Title: Emotive Language:“Residents paint a depressing picture of alienation, anger, boredom and mischief”- This signifies that the writer is bias stating that the people who live in Hackney are making the place worse and saying they are up to mischief. This creates the idea to the reader that all people in hackney are bad even when its possible that people who rioted may have come from outside of Hackney.

Topic Sentence: Results of RiotLanguage: “masked youths”- this emphasises that teenagers are the enemy, describing them all as masked which connotes that they are guilty and responsible. The “Hundreds” also emphasises that they are in a force to make them sound threatening. An alternative view of this might be that they are wearing mask not to be intimidating but because of the possible smoke from the burnt cars.

Opposites established: ‘Normal People’ afraid and being protected by the police for the safety of their shop.

Topic Sentence: Worried neighbours protect homes.Language: the teenagers are represented as being guilty, described as slowly going down the street, almost like creeping up on someone, and staring at people suspiciously, almost as if they are shown to be intimidating because they are guilty. An alternative view of this might be that they are trying to escape the riots on their bikes.

Opposites Established: ‘Normal People’ worried and talking “discreetly” amongst themselves, innocents huddled together . Fear of ‘Normal People’ emphasised.

Selection of Source: An older man in his 40’s, his age highlighted to show the binary opposite of him and the teenagers, “Stood on his doorstep until 2am”, to get the audience to empathise with this innocent man. This is backed by the fact that he “Did not give his name” which is to show his fear and add more empathy towards the adults against the teenagers. To create the Us (Adults) vs Them (Teens).

Photo of Riot police pushing back the rioters. Burning cars shown to connote the damage done by the rioters. Adults more likely to own cars than teenagers, which could signify that the adults are the victims of the teenagers arson attacks. Police shown to be helping two adults near burning car in an area that the police have secured. This is to further emphasise the adults being victims and put teenagers in a darker light.

The Metro 09/08/2011 (http://metro.co.uk/2011/08/09/london-riots-video-shows-scum-stealing-from-injured-boy-108837/)

Title: Emotive Language: “Scum”-This signifies that the writer is obviously biased in that they have labelled the teenagers as scum which is a word used to describe the lowest form of life and ultimately shows teenagers as worthless. “Stealing”- This signifies that the writer is trying to add as much emotive language as possible to put teenagers in a negative light. “Injured”- This is also used to connote someone innocent who has been caught up by the ‘evil’ teenagers.

Sub Title: “Bleeding Teenager”, “Ransacked”, “Group of Youths”- This signifies that despite the victim being in the same age group of the other teenagers, he is labelled as a teenager while they are referred to with a more aggressive term such as youths which has a more derogatory tone to it. This essentially means that the writer is biased as they have labelled people different emotive names to stir up the audience into hating certain people.

Selection of Source: Emotive Language: “Scumbags” and “Evil”- This connotes that the writer is biased towards the teenagers, picking select sources and details that specifically say negative things about teenagers.

Picture of a group teenagers. This image shows a group of teenagers with hoods and covering their faces. This connotes that this image was specifically chosen to portray teenagers in a negative light and make them look guilty.

Caption: Group labelled as “Gang”, this connotes that the writer is biased and believes that groups of teenagers are violent gangs.

The Telegraph 08/08/2011 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8630533/Riots-the-underclass-lashes-out.html)

Title: Emotive Language: “Underclass”- This connotes that the writer obviously looks down on the rioters and labels them as people from a lower class. This is not necessarily true as a a millionaire’s daughter was in the riots as well as an actor from the Harry potter films which are unlikely people to be in underclass.

Subtitle: Emotive Language: “Products of a crumbling nation”- This connotes that the writer believes that these teenagers are waste produced by the UK which makes it a crumbling nation. In other words, the teenagers are portrayed as the reason the UK is failing.

Topic Sentence: “Hooded Teenagers”- This connotes that the writer has specifically chosen to explain the teenagers as hooded and wants to create a negative image of them. This signifies that the writer is bias, showing the teenagers in a poor light as the adults are shown to be brave and “stand vigil” over the “Urban war zone” created by the youth.

Police officer shown as good, shown as victim trying to help clear up mess. Creates binary opposite that reinforces hatred of youth. This connotes that the writer is biased, creating a positive representation of the law and showing when the youth bypass that law, this is the chaos that ensues.