1. Representation of youth in British TV
and Film
By Noor Sharif
I will be discussing in detail the stereotypes surrounding the young
people of today’s society. And what a sub-culture is and I will be
research the sub-cultures in the 20th century. I will be looking into
the filmic, TV, comedic and music videos representations of young
people.

2. Stereotypes
 What stereotypes of young people exist in today’s society?
 How might young people be described?
 Do you think there are a range of stereotypes that exist to define young people today? Or do you think many young people are seen from a
narrow point of view? Explain your ideas.
 British youth’s have been represented in a really negative light, this is
presented using Television programs and films. For example: Fish Tank.
They are stereotyped to be involved in crime, come from a broken home
and rowdy.
 The media (film and TV) operate within a structure that produces and
reinforces negative stereotypes. This will affect how young people are
seen. For example: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26230410 - this
website states that many teenagers are afraid that the media
stereotypes may cloud a persons judgment of them and lead to them
not getting the jobs they want.
 I believe that there are a range of stereotypes that exist in today’s
society which define how we are perceived. They are like sticky labels
and can be difficult to remove. This is because many people watch
television and films and they witness a few of the same behaviors in some
teenagers, they use this on labeling the majority of teenagers as
troublemakers or uneducated.

3. Sub-cultures
 Sub-culture is a cultural group within a larger culture, who often
have beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger
cultures
 Examples of subcultures are: greasers, mods/rockers, hippies,
ravers, grunge and gangsters.
 What is meant by the term sub-culture?
 Research some of the following sub-cultures from the 20th century and share your findings:
greasers, mods/rockers, hippies, ravers, grunge and gangsters.

4. Greaser
 A greaser is a youth sub-culture that
originated in the 1950s among teens
in northeastern and southern US. The
features of this sub-culture was rock
and roll music and they were usually
working class neighborhoods that
greaser subculture was popular in.
This subculture has been enhanced
by using the media to represent it, for
example: Elvis Presley, Ritchie Valens
who were singers were used to
influence teens.

5. Rockers
 Rockers are part of a biker
subculture that originated
during the 1950s in the United
Kingdom. Rockers had many
different characteristics, for
example: they only bought
factory made motorcycles,
they stripped them down and
made them to appear like
racing bikes. They used the skull
and crossbones as a type of
symbolism too. They also had
heavily decorated motorcycle
jackets with metal studs,
patches, pin badges.

6. Mods
 Mod is a British youth subculture of
the early to mid 1960s. It focused on
modernist men who listened to
modern jazz music. They wore
significant fashion items like tailor
made suits and listened to music
such as ska and soul. They usually
rode motor scooters. The mods have
had a conflict with the rockers
because in the 1950s to 1960s they
were the main subcultures. The mods
were seen as stuck up, middle
classed, snobbish and phony
whereas the rockers were seen as
loutish, scruffy and naïve.

7. Hippie
 Hippie subculture was originated in
the United States during the mid 1960s
and slowly spread around all the
other countries. Hippies created their
own communities, listen to
psychedelic music, embraced sexual
revolution and used drugs such as
cannabis to explore altered states of
consciousness.
 Hippies are different because they
wanted to free themselves from
societal restrictions, they wanted to
choose there own way and make
their own rules and have a new
meaning to life.

8. Ravers
 Raves is a large party or festival featuring
music from DJs this will include house, trance,
techno, drum and bass, hardcore, hard style
music. They originated in the mid-to-late 1980s
in Chicago in United States of America. There
characteristics differ, for example: ravers
subcultures have been branded as purely
drug-centric cultures. Their attire usually
consists of Vick VapoRub – which ravers find
pleasant under the influence of ecstasy. And
they carry pacifiers – which satiates the need
to grind one’s teeth and they carry glow sticks
which adjunct the mild psychedelic of ecstasy
effect.

9. Grunge
 Grunge is a subgenre of
alternative rock that
originated during the mid
1980s in Seattle Washington. It
is generally characterized by a
sludgy guitar sound that uses a
high level of distortion, fuzz
and feedback effects.
Clothing worn by grunge
musicians consisted of thrift
store items, flannel shirts.

10. Gangster
 Gangster is a criminal who is
part of a gang. They are also
known as mobsters. They
have been active for many
years in countries around the
world. Gangsters are the
subject of many movies.
Gangs have a sense of
common identity and
belonging, this is reinforced
by activities and visual
identifications such as
tattoos, rings and hoodies.

11. Filmic representation of young
people
 Young people have been represented in a negative
stereotype in majority of the British films. For example: in films
they are usually dressed in dark clothing, caps and scarves
that cover their identities. Through the use of Mise-en-scene,
weapons are usually illustrated on the youth. British youth are
stereotyped as being rowdy, hood rats and chavy that
have had a bad childhood or background. For example: in
the film Fish Tank, they are stereotyped negatively but the
film focuses on the reason as to why they are like this. It looks
deeply into the factors affecting the teenagers behavior like
her upbringing. The main character is called Mia and she
has been represented as an under aged drinker, smoker,
she has had sex with her mothers boyfriend. She is boisterous
and loud which goes against how a female teenager
should be.

12. TV representation of young people
 The TV represents people in a different way than a
film, this maybe because a film can only summarize
everything that affects a teenager. However, TV
programs such as My Mad Fat Diary or Waterloo
Road look very closely at the teenagers life and the
factors affecting their behavior. Youth culture is
usually represented in TV drama as disrespectful,
rebellious, menace to society, dangerous, lazy and
violent. The media uses language to aid to the
negative representations by having swearing, slang,
mocking, argumentative and flirtatious languages.
They tend to look accurately into everyday youth life
by having storylines that include relationships, affairs,
drugs, law breaking, suicide, pregnancy, broken
homes and depression.

13. Comedic representations of young
people
 Comedic representations are used in Diary of a Bad Man,
where he informs people of his life or a stereotypical life
of a person of that culture. This looks at a culture as a
whole and has a narrow point of view on them. This is
only done for comedic purposes on YouTube and it does
not intend to create a negative stereotype on people.

14. Thank you – Noor Sharif