This document provides feedback and guidance for students on improving their collective identity essay answers. It outlines the key points that should be covered in the essay, including: 1) Discussing one historical text and two contemporary texts that represent youth identities in media. 2) Explaining how early 1950s films depicted juvenile delinquency in a negative way that reinforced social norms. 3) Analyzing studies that found most modern media portrayals of teenagers are negative and focus on crime. 4) The conclusion should summarize the argument that media influences perceptions of youth identities but individual experiences also shape responses to media representations.

1. COLLECTIVE
IDENTITY
ESSAY
LESSON OUTCOMES: YOU WILL BE ABLE
TO IDENTIFY TARGETS TO IMPROVE YOUR
COLLECTIVE IDENTITY ANSWER.
After school revision:
TODAY – Media and
Collective Identity –
Getting Theory Right
Next THURSDAY
A2 Exam Technique
Tuesday 27th of May A2
Study Day

2. ESSAY FEEDBACK
Less focus on historical texts (Rebel Without a Cause, etc.)
More detailed discussion of contemporary texts
Link more consistently to the question of the extent to which
media influences collective identity
Sum up argument in conclusion
Some of you will need to identify what parts of the essay to
cut out as you probably won’t be able to include that amount
of detail in an hour.

3. Introduction
Historical - Rebel Without a Cause – 1 paragraph – 1/3 of a
page. NO MORE THAN HALF A PAGE.
Negative Contemporary Hoodies or Altar Boys Study (Hoodie
Cinema)
Misfits
Contemporary Films
(Demos Study)
Conclusion

4. INTRODUCTION
Quote – paraphrase – link to focus of essay.
Argument:
Representations of young people are constructed by adults,
tend to be negative, reinforce hegemonic values. Essay will
explore the extent to which these representations influence
our understanding of identity.

5. HISTORICAL
Media representations of young people have always tended
to be negative.
1950s cycle of JD (JUVENILE DELINQUENCY) movies
reflected social anxiety about post-war emergence of youth
culture.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) depicted juvenile delinquency
(knife fights, car races, drunkenness, etc.) and reinforced
hegemonic values (Acland) by showing consequences of
failure to conform. (Altman – pleasure of cultural
transgression in contained way).
Althusser – media powerful in creating consensus – would
influence perceptions of identity.

6. CONTEMPORARY
NEGATIVE
‘Hoodies or Altar Boys’ (2009) was a study of newspaper
representations of teenage boys in Britain.
Majority of stories were negative – most about crime,
sensationalised language – yob, monster, inhuman, evil –
used to describe teenagers.
Gerbner/Cohen
Fiske/Hall – counter argument
(Link to Hoodie cinema if you have time – links to moral
panic. Issue of social class – Philio.

7. MISFITS (2009-2013)
Uses negative stereotypes of ASBO youths – makes the
characters likable/heroes.
Challenges negative discourse
Suggests media can play a role in affecting out
understanding of identity.
Wearing argues it may reinforce stereotypes.
Hyperreal representation of youth – based on other
representations. Media does not reflect reality?

8. ATTACK THE BLOCK
(2011)/SELFISH GIANT
(2013)
Attack the Block – like Misfits uses negative stereotypes of
working class youths as criminals – challenges
representation.
Utopian ending reconciles tensions between middle class
and working class through Dyer’s utopian categories such as
community and intensity.
The Selfish Giant – focuses on working class boys – uses
negative stereotypes – creates a sympathetic representation.
Explores how and why marginalised social groups cannot
conform and failed/demonised by hegemonic society.
Both film are deliberate responses to negative
representations – influence of media.

9. ‘GENERATION CITIZEN’,
DEMOS STUDY (2014)
Found most newspaper stories about young people were
negative – crime, drinking, etc.
80% of young people felt they were represented negatively.
Interviewed teachers – found teachers described young
people positively and said they were represented unfairly –
shows how the audience use their own experience to
respond to media texts – Hall.

10. CONCLUSION
Sum up argument
- most representations negative, reinforce hegemonic perspective
- Some representations attempt to challenge this
- Suggests media is influential in constructing understanding of
collective identity – though not in direct way (GAUNTLETT).
- Whilst over a long period of time media representations are
likely to influence perceptions (Gerbner) audience response is
ultimately determined by the individual audience member
(Fiske) who draw on their own experiences to respond in
different ways (Hall).
- Prediction for the future – always predominantly negative,
unlikely to change. Social media offers young people
opportunity to construct own representations and challenge
negative media representations (Stephen Sutton).

11. HOMEWORK
Use your targets to improve your essay and create model
answer to learn for exam.
Remember you only have an hour in the exam to write your
answer.