Question 2- How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?

Most teenagers of today have been misrepresented by the media and are stereotyped as troublemakers who have little value within society, creating a distance between younger people and other groups in the community.

However, the media does have the power to change this negative opinion of youths of today, reporting positively about them by outlining their achievements and goals rather than their criminal activities.

This can be shown back in the past before the 21^st century, especially with teenage females, where they were represented as smart, quiet and dutiful whereas in today’s culture they are portrayed to be just as aggressive and rebellious as males.

Even though there are plenty of positive, achievements made by today’s youths, the media chooses to focus on the negative actions and activities they get involved in such as the London Riots because they believe they are more ‘newsworthy’, which increases the violent and rebellious reputation of the younger people today.

Teenagers have also been given the same image within television of today. For example programmes like ‘Skins’ and ‘Misfits’ have created the image of a group of teenagers who ‘get high, get drunk, get laid and get up for their A-levels’ which was quoted from the Guardian back in 2007, doing no justice in changing this reputation that today’s youths have been branded with.

The storylines of these programmes that follow the lives of a teenager, have a main focus of crime, drugs, sex, drink and gangs which along with the medias opinion of younger people, expands this ‘thug’ theory that has been created.For example, after watching a number of trailers for the series of 'skins', like this one for season 3, it proves that the image the whole series is creating for teenagers is based on violence, drink, drugs and sex. This is shown by a group of younger people entering a pub full of older people and violently destroying the place along with fighting with one another, sexual suggestions and complete disrespect for the older generation. This is a very different interpretaion of the lives of teenagers than the ones from many years ago, however, todays image if youths through television may be a lot more realistic than what it once was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdsqkWiZx84

However, it never used to be like this. The image that is now created for teenagers through television programmes such as ‘skins’ has dramatically changed compared to programmes from the 1930’s such as ‘Good manners’, a popular programme of this time based on the lives of teenagers. Back in this time era, teenagers were portrayed as well mannered, well spoken and very polite when addressing each other.

It is clear that the representation of teenagers has evolved throughout the years, from the image of the innocent, obedient young people who were un-sexualised and completely unaware of the negative world around them from the early nineties, which has now changed and possibly became more realistic as teenagers became more loud, expressive and sexually aware.