The media plays a large role in constructing collective identities of youth. Newspaper coverage of the 2011 London riots focused heavily on negative portrayals of hooded youths as the main perpetrators of violence. Reporters interviewed youths involved in the riots without providing equal representation of those not involved or allowing them to fully explain their perspectives. Court records showed over half of those charged were teenagers and young adults. However, some positive outcomes emerged like campaigns promoting more nuanced representations of youth and social media organizing clean-up efforts. While social media has allowed some youth voices to be heard, mainstream media controlled by older generations continues shaping negative perceptions of youth identities.

1. Explain the role played by the media in the construction of collective identity.
The representation of youths today is a negative representation, with the research I have
collected and read up, all show that the press has given youths a negative representation of
their identities. For an example if there was a teenager wearing a hoodie with the hood up
they would be classed as a stereo typical teenager as a hoodie by society. When people see
teenagers with hoodies on they automatically feels threatened because they have been
reading or listening to the negative points of views from the press. Mass media has affected
the way people look at youths especially during the London riots which started on Saturday
6th August 2010 and finished on Tuesday 9th August 2010. Most rioters were wearing
hoodies and scarf’s on their faces to hide their identities from the press so the press can’t
distribute the images to the police. Most representations came from the older generation
for an example the chief executive editor of the sun Dominic Mohan is an older person he is
now 42 which is a mature age and will have a negative point of view on teenage youths. I
will be mentioning different theorists in this essay who I think is related to London riots and
the identities during the riots. I will also be discussing two films that I have researched and
link to identities which is Quadrophenia and The clockwork Orange. Finally I will be talking
about Plan B and his song ill manors.
A Clockwork Orange was made in 1971; it was written, directed and produced by Stanley
Kubrick. It shows disturbing, violent images, facilitating its social commentary on psychiatry,
youth gangs and other social, political and economic subjects in a dystopian, future Britain.
The press are looking at the film in a negative way because people are copying scenes from
the film for an example from the mail online “Girl kicked gay man to death in an attack like
scene from A Clockwork Orange” the newspaper goes on and explains what the two women
did to the victim. A witness mentioned that the level of violence to a scene from A
Clockwork Orange which caused an outrage on release over its depiction of a gang of
teenagers carrying out violence. Stan Cohen’s theory would be related to this film with
deviance amplification because the numbers of gang violence is rising and the press are
reporting it to be related to the film. Quadrophenia was made in 1979, British film, loosely
based around the 1973 rock opera of the same name by The Who. The film stars Phil Daniels
as a mod called Jimmy. Franc Roddam directed the film. The representation of Jimmy is that
he wants to be apart of a gang, identity is very important to Jimmy. Jimmy wanted to be
different but he was just the same as any other normal mod. At on point in the film Jimmy’s
identity was compromised when his friend Kevin was beaten up. Mise en scene that
reinforces the idea of youth culture was locations: they had house parties with loud music,
alcohol and drugs were involved. Drugs were mainly taken by the generation in the film
because the adults know what they were like; most pubs/clubs were just full of teenagers
drinking. Vehicles, most of the teenagers were in a gang either the mods or the rockers,
both gangs had certain vehicles. The mods had a lambrella scooters and the rockers had
motor bikes, all the adults would drive cars. Clothing, the mods wore parkers (coat) with

2. demin jeans and fredperrytshirts, the rockers wore full leathers for their bikes the older
generation wore shirts and ties.
All newspapers that have been created during the London riots have been focusing on the
younger generation because of the acts of violence. The images used in newspapers are
negative for an example they have photographs of youths waiting out side of a shop to loot
or they are inside the shop with the items in their hands they are going to steal.
Underneath most of the images have captions and news reporter explain what they wanted
for or what they are doing and mostly uses the words youths or hooded yobs. This does not
give a fair voice to the youths because it is just images showing what was happened and
doesn’t give them a chance to freedom of speech. I do agree that most of these people
should be caught and punished for what they did that is what the article is for to catch those
who were doing wrong to society but they are mostly hooded youths so they can protect
their identities. I think because of the London riots teenagers with hoodies on will become
the stereotypical teenager. With the news coverage most reporters interview young lads
who look like they apart of gangs and wear hoodies. For an example a reporter interviews
some young lads who have been to Blackpool and got off the train to the riots, as they were
trying to get on another train to go home like they were told by the police but got caught in
the riots crowds and got pushed to other places.
The reporter interviews some young lads who have been to Blackpool and got off the train to the
riots, as they were trying to get on another train to go like they were told by the police but the got
caught in a crowd and got pushed from on place to another. The reporter also interviews another
youth who is taking part in the riots and violence. The first youths were not trying to hide their
identity because they haven't done anything wrong to do so, while the other youth hides his identity
and also explains why to the reporter "because the police will get you on camera, then nick you
down the line, 3 months down the line." This shows that some youths don't care and just want to
join the violence and get drunk. I think that this broadcast is biased because the reporter doesn't let
the first set of youths explain properly and jumps straight over to the hooded youth. The youths
don't get a fair voice in this broadcast because the just concentrate with the hooded youth. The ages
of people in the court rooms and the percentages were the following: 11-17 19% and 18-24 51%,
this shows that there was more than half of the people in the courtrooms getting charged was
teenagers.
There is a positive point that we have got from the London riots and that is the campaigns to show
that not every teenager is negative towards the society when they are wearing a hoodie. For an
example the goodie in a hoodie campaign is trying to show the other generations and working class
that you can’t judge peoples identity from what they are wearing. There are many campaigns that
kicked off from the London riots such as not in my name campaign-NCVYS, young not dumb and
goodie in a hoodie. There are many positive out comes from the London riots for an example youths
used social media to help the clean up in London: Facebook-Riot clean up, Twitter-#cleanup. Social

3. media has been seen as a good and bad thing because rioters were using it to organise the riots
online and on the good side people were using it to organise groups to clean up the areas that were
hit by the London riots.
I think that the media plays a big role in constructing the identity of youths today and I think if the
ideas of youth’s identity do change I think it will just get more negative and I think that this will
cause more trouble throughout Britain between youths and the older generation. I think that the
younger generation will get the chance to give a fair voice for the overall youths today I think that
people like plan b are helping those who can be helped and will then start helping other people to
do so. We need younger people to do that also then we have more of a chance to change the
negative views from the mass media and the older generations. I think that the social media has
given youths a chance to have a fair voice but within limits. I think that this will help teenagers to say
what they want without causing trouble and maybe then the older generation will actually look at
what younger generation want to say. I still think that the mass media will still control the idea of
teenagers identity because it’s the older/more mature generation working on the mass media, if
they start to get younger people then it might change but until then identity for the younger
generation will still be negative.