How do the contemporary media represent British youth and youth culture in different ways?

Harry Brown 2009 Director: Daniel Barber

How does Harry Brown represent young people?

Iconography and Themes:
use of hoodies- creates ideas in our heads on what to expect
dogs
knifes, guns
activities
drugs
location- subway
objectifies women
female police officer challenges gender stereotype- however is ignored by fellow male co-workers
territory
revenge
friendship
diologue- colloquial language

Three way binary oppositions between Harry, the gangs and the police
Old vs young
 Social class - Gangs - lower class - Police- middle class

Low key lighting- dark characters, builds suspense, lots of shadows

Genre- crime thriller with some horror

Hoodies strike fear in British Cinema

It suggests young people are represented as dehuminsed thugs without emotions. Seen as monsters (zombies, vampires)

This links to the horror genre, the less you know about something the more you are scared of it. Teens are now the monsters however they are real, and this makes them very scary.

In terms of social class, Council estates like 'prison cells', very claustrophobic, can't escape from anyone. Dont have a future, survival is harder so they turn to aggression and drugs.

Refers to right wing politics
Hegemony- the power of the ruling class, they want us to believe a particular thing about a certain class such as lower class. Make clear distinctions between classes. Creating these distinctions through the media.
For example, ASBO's were introduced by the media.

Moral panic- make us fear stuff

Implications of the representations


Eden Lake Director: James Watkins

How are Jenny and Steve the main couple represented?
How is this contrasted with the representation of the other characters?
How important is the issue of social class?
How are young people represented?


At the beginning the dialogue from Jenny makes her appear quite ungrateful and spoilt as she mocks the fact that Steve is taking her on a trip to a 'rundown quary'. However Jenny and Steve are represented as a nice loving couple by the way they interact with eachother, such as laughing in the car together and kiss in the lake. They appear to be middle class by the car they drive and their nice clothes. The bright, warm lighting at the beginning of the trailer as it follows the couple, give connotations that they are kind happy people.
In contrast to this, the youths who they encounter on their holiday are represented as monsters. The first time Steve talks to the youths, he approaches them calmy and asks them to turn their music down, which represents him as reasonable. However, in response, they are aggressive and the female youth is rude as she trys to imply that Steve was looking at her breasts. The youths are also represented negatively as they are seen driving around in Jenny and Steve's car.
In the next part of the trailer, the representation of the youths turns extremly negative as there are shots of them torturing Jenny and Steve, making them seem like monsters. The lighting under the mise-en-scene becomes low key lighting conveying that there is a very dark side to the youths and expressing Jenny and Steve's vunerability as they are less likely to see the youths if its dark, giving the youths an advantage.
The clothing and dialogue of the youths make them seem lower class and therefore this trailer shows binary oppositions of lower class vs middle class.
As the couple are there on their holiday, this highlights the fact that the youths have nothing better to do and also shows that this is their territory and therefore gives them an advantage over the couple as they know the woods better.
The youths are conveyed as a pack of animals as they outnumber the couple, and the use of their rotweiller gives them more of an adavantage.
The use of nightime when the danger occurs in the trailer.
As steve is seen injured and Jenny left to find help, this trailer represents women as vuneralble and shows the men being violent rather then the women.

The location of the woods makes the couple seem isolated from the rest of the world and highlights their vunerability.

• Horror film is normality is threatened by the monster.
• Dominant ideologies- conformity to the dominant social norms
• Youths are not conforming to dominant ideologies, in the past this has been the skinheads, mods, rockers, hippies.

Todorov theory

Introduced to equilibrium- disruption to equilibrium- equilbrium is restored.


Attack the Block (2011) Director- Joe Cornish

At the beginning, the youths are represented as monsters as they are creeping around in the shadows, and attacking the women. The iconography represents them as typical youths withs hoods and bandanas to cover their identity when mugging someone. Oppotunistic crime as she is crossing into their territory.
Their colloquial language makes them appear as a pack and hard to understand therefore hard to predict.