Youth culture is defined as a specific culture shaped by media artifacts and technologies that target teenagers and young adults aged 14-25. It encompasses various media forms such as novels, music, and films, and is influenced by factors like access to media, language, and community participation. The origins of youth culture date back to the 1950s, marked by shifts in regulations that allowed for prolonged adolescence and the emergence of distinct youth themes.

1. Youth and Culture

2. What is Youth Culture ?
• A specific culture generated by and dispersed via
media artifacts and information technologies
• Specifically artifacts addressing, depicting, and
negotiating teenagers and young adults 14-25
• Novels, TV programs, music, fashion, films, games
etc.

3. All Media Products
have an Angle
Tech-savvy and
engaged
Increasing product
sales and community
building
Increased purchasing power

4. Industrialized Globalism

5. ???
• Imperialism
• Ethnocentric
• Proponents of Diversity
• Hybridization
• Postmodern

6. Homogenous & Diverse

7. Where

8. When

9. A cultural Community…
• Is always based on access to the media artifacts
• Is/was bound by:
• Language
• Media access/exposure
• Policies and legislature
Anderson: “…nation-ness is the most universally
legitimate value in the (…) life of our time.”

10. A community is:
• Imagined: unknown boundaries/participants
• Limited: though intangible, they exist
• Sovereign: community generated and maintained
rules
• Language, signs, hierarchies
• Community sense of comradeship due to
community participation

11. • Origins of youth culture 1950s
• Shift in regulation/industry interest/prolonged
adolescents
• Good Kids and Bad Kids  for whom and by whom
• More time and space to develop = rise in youth
culture
• Themes important to young adults take center stage

12. Studying Youth Culture
• Television Studies multidiscipline approach
• Industry, cultural context, content, audience, policies
• UK Skins Episodes 1 + 2