London riots essay

A negative representation is better than no representation at all. Discuss this statement with reference to the group or place you have studied

A representation provides a model of how we see social groups, genders, individuals and aspects of the world we all inhabit. They are ideological in that they are constructed within a framework of values and beliefs. Representations are therefore mediated and reflect the value systems of their sources; no representation is never real only a version of the real. However when it comes to the case study we have being study which is young people’s representation within the media. No representation looks better than a negative representation. As for example after the riots the young people have had huge negative representation which not only changed their image within the media but also changed their image within the audience, hence creating a moral panic. As how within print, moving image and e-media there has been huge debates over the representation of young people within the riots and how the media represented them as for example news reports within the BBC showed images of young people breaking shops, being violent and just mindless people which injected (hypodermic needle) this negative image of young people as how with all the young people wearing  hoodies they made a huge generalized image of them and stripped all other identities that could be associated with a person for example background class etc. Which goes back to the point that no representation is better as then each young person from different classes, background’s etc. can build and define their own image/representation and not having audiences and the media reflecting a generalized image of the generation.

Within print media the representation of young people during the riots, was hugely negative. As within the articles they had similar images, where we either saw the young people having their face covered with hoodies stripping them of their identity. For example within the guardian article “trouble in the hood” where all the images had young people with hoodies making them all look the same, which resulted in the moral panic of how people in society had this fear of people wearing hoodies and had this generalised image of all young people being violent. Furthermore the play of words in which “trouble in the hood” not all made reference to hoodies but also gave this idea of these people being working class as the term “hood” is often used by working class youths. Which again not only negatively represents young people but now also targets the working class as another example is the daily mail where in the article “supermarket sweep” they made reference to the idea how the working class are actually taking advantage of the whole situation as at first the riots started in order to take stand on Mark Duggans death, however later the whole thing spiraled into this violent, stealing atmosphere. Where the article “supermarket sweep” really reflected how the working class youths are just these greedy individuals who are envious towards the middle class and are hence revolting by stealing. In this situation Gramsci’s theory can be used as how all these media institutions are owned by the middle class, arguably we can say that the middle class are using all these articles as an excuse to really penalize the working class so they can reinforce their power (hegemony) and reinforce their values upon society. Which then brings up the debate as whether it was the working class just revolting on the basis of the economic crisis and all the other welfare cuts or whether the media has just “mediated” and exaggerated the whole story as the riots took place during august which is known as “silly season” as during this time of year news is known to be slow therefore this big event could have been just taken and blown out of proportion. Relating it back to the question this negative representation was definitely not good as later other media institution fed on this image of young people and followed on to make movies and other moving image pieces of work which reinforced this negative representation, just increasing the moral panic.

Furthermore not only were classes being involved in this issue, but also race and ethnicity was used. Such as the article the evening standard “the broom army” where in this article they were talking about how after the riots a group of people gathered and cleaned up the town. However the image within the article only showed a group of white people, which just reinforced the idea of binary opposition as how in the article for the Daily mail we see this huge image of the authorities arresting a black man. This showed the idea of the white people being the heroes and the black people being the villains which shows how institutions didn't just represent the young people negatively but also the working class and ethnicities.

In addition movies and other television programs also helped in reinforcing the negative representations of the youth. For example movies like attack the block where we have the stereotypical young male black character that comes from a broken home who lives in a council estate and is violent etc. And then later in the movie he is the hero that kills the aliens but lastly is arrested for the damages he caused which shows how it’s a fight against society and the youth (Said’s them and us). And how even though the youth are trying to break their negative representation society will just keep reinforcing the label. Resulting in the youth behaving in the way they are expected. This shows that no representation is better as if the youth didn't have that negative representation, they wouldn't behave in the way they are expected.

In conclusion no representation is better than a negative representation. However with the media being involved no representation is unlikely to be there, as each group or individual will be stereotyped/ represented in a certain way by the media. Furthermore as also programs, movies etc are written and directed by certain people their view on the individuals will be shown in the piece work they are directing/writing, showing that how the representation they portray the audience will view. As especially the news as that are only source of information we are more likely to intake what they say hence the view of young people. Showing that no representation of nay group is unlikely and is better.