MEST 4: Research & Production

Final Linked Production

2010-05-06T01:49:00.001-07:00

Critical Investigation Final Draft

2010-04-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

“You see us as you want to see us... in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a prince...and a criminal.[1]”

An investigation into the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions and how this has changed over the years.

The representation of teenagers in the media has continuously evolved over the years as shown through programmes ‘Saved by the Bell’ in comparison to ‘Glee’ where representations of teenagers has significantly changed when comparing to an older text and a contemporary text. In 1990’s programmes such as ‘Saved by the Bell’ for example, teenagers are represented more innocently and more like what today’s society would consider as ‘geeks’. The contemporary text ‘Glee’ emphasises the innocent representation of earlier programmes by depicting a group of more worldly “aspiring underdogs”[2] trying to get the best out of life. Other contemporary texts such as ‘Take the Lead’ follow this idea of aspiring to be better, to an extent, as they show that teenagers are involved in gang crime. Teenagers have been represented positively and extremely negatively which creates a moral panic in wider society. This essay will explore the representation of teenagers in contemporary mainstream Hollywood texts such as ’17 Again’ (2009) and ‘Glee’, compared to older mainstream Hollywood texts such as ‘The Breakfast Club’ (1985) and ‘Saved by the Bell’. Murphy believes ideas become stereotypes that are "unrealistic" and "unsatisfactory"[3] which could be the case when looking at teenagers as explored in this essay.

Indeed, "today it is widely recognised that stereotypes are inaccurate, simplistic generalisations about a group of individuals that may lead to particular perceptions of the group by others"[4]. Is this the case with teenagers? Youths have repeatedly been represented in a “negative way thus creating folk devils”[5] within movies due to the unbalanced image that has been constructed as shown in films such as ’17 Again’ and ‘Superbad’. In ’17 Again’, teenagers are shown to be continuously getting into fights and having sex. Similarly, ‘Superbad’ shows the teenage boys being obsessed over the ‘hot girls’. This shows the customary stereotypes of teenagers are being reinforced in dominant, high-grossing films and Hollywood institutions are not challenging ideologies but are pandering to the lowest common denominator so that Hollywood has been “decisively juvenalized”[6]. However, in the film 'High School Musical' (2006), teenagers are represented as passionate towards their singing which challenges stereotypes of teenagers. This relates to Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotics theory as different interpretations are being created which will make the audience have different opinions on teenagers. Yet, Lewis believes that, "teen films are addressing major issues like alienation, delinquency, rebellion, sex and gender"[7].

During the 20^th Century, institutions began to treat those under 20 as "distinct and separate from adults“[8]. This demonstrates, over time stereotypes of teenagers have changed in the media as in the 20th century this representation began. This representation is shown in films such as ’17 Again’ where a medium shot is used when a fight occurs in school. The use of close ups are used to help emphasise the feeling of each character involved in the fight which mainly revolves around Mike. There is a clear opposition between the ‘jocks’ and the ‘nerds’ which relates to personal identity according to the Uses and Gratification theory as teenagers may find this film similar to themselves due to the distinction between jocks and nerds. In parallel fashion, Hollywood has made films about young people and made films designed or presumed to cater for what it called, “'the juve trade' - juvenile spectators”[9]. This was shown while comparing this contemporary text to a historical texts as there was a difference in the stereotypes of teenagers from how it is now which was shown the jocks in the film are continuously threatening to kill and stab their enemies whereas no violence takes place. These type of films have created a representation in parent’s minds that every middle school student is, “gossip ridden, hormone-raging and naive”[10] which shows the way in which parents are easily willing to “pin these stereotypes to their children, and then judge them accordingly”[11]. This has resulted to becoming a social factor in the public mainly due to parental concerns. This demonstrates that it is as Hollywood is purposely producing films on teenagers for fashion as if teenagers are a trend resulting to teenagers becoming a social topic which creates the ideology that they do not fit in to society. This has resulted to an increase in moral panics being generated about teenagers, and due to this, the representation of teenagers are becoming more negative.

Martin Barker describes the concept of stereotypes as a “useless tool for investigating texts for misrepresenting the ‘real world’”[12]. This is shown in the film ‘Step up 2: The Streets’ (2008) as teenagers are being misrepresented due to teenagers taking part in street dance and dancing illegally which creates the ideology that they are wrong. This refers to the reception theory as not all of the audience will watch this film and gain a negative view of teenagers whereas some of the audience may interpret this text in a different way depending on their gender, age, class and ethnicity. Is this representation of teenagers being created in to a moral panic due to the way that the media is portraying teenagers? The media is known to have “the power through selection and reinforcement to give us very influential portrayals of a whole range of groups”[13]. This shows that, with reference to the hypodermic needle model, due to the media and its texts, the audience is then being injected ideas in to their minds. This is shown as the media organise power through stereotypical representations that “re inscribe social rules and roles”[14] which shows that the media plays a part in the stereotypes of teenagers, resulting in the evolution of moral panics.

In a historical perspective, the representation of teenagers has changed over the years in a range of ways in Hollywood productions. Marshal Mcluhan, dubbed the media that they “rarely see by accident and never without interest”[15] which shows the media wants to gain an audience for their benefit. This change has been shown as can be depicted in the Hollywood film ‘Rebel without a Cause’ (1955). The film shows that; teenagers in the 50’s were not represented as negatively as they are now as shown in ‘Rebel without a Cause’; the movie shows the protagonist, Jim, is continuously trying to prove himself to his friends by switchblade knife fights and dangerous driving. In this film there is violence present but it is not as much as now as no murder scenes are shown or abuse towards peers unlike in contemporary films.

In the 90’s, the hegemonic stereotype of teenagers was that they were disrespectful towards teachers and were portrayed as extremely immature. Over time, this negative stereotype has developed into a more negative stereotype and become a threat in the media, creating moral panics against teenagers. ‘Rebel without a Cause’ shows teenagers answering back to teachers and arguing with them instead of embracing the knowledge given to them by their teachers. Barry believes ‘Rebel without a Cause’ was “deeply alarming in their portrayal of teenagers willing to defy school teachers”[16]. The representation of teenagers seem to have become more negative than it was in the 90’s, which now seems ‘innocent’ compared to the violent, threatening stereotypes we are not presented with which shows “youth have once again become the object of public analysis”[17]. This has resulted to teenagers becoming a part of social interaction according to the Uses and Gratifications theory as the public now gain an insight in the circumstances of teenagers.

Another historical media text that can raise awareness on the difference of the representation of teenagers is ‘The Breakfast Club’. Tessa Parking believed that “we tend to make assumptions about stereotypes which can themselves be misleading”[18]. This could be the case when looking at ‘The Breakfast Club’ as throughout the film, five stereotypes, a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal are shown in Saturday detention. In one particular scene Andrew picks a fight with Bender for making Claire feel uncomfortable. This immediately shows a negative representation of teenagers which is emphasised by Bender telling Andrew that he doesn’t want to get into a fight with him because “I’d kill you!” He pulls out a knife which anchors the meaning even more. Although, it’s implied no one ever sees Bender do anything bad, he seems to be all talk, when the teacher threatens him in the store room, he doesn’t attack him. In today’s society, if that had happened, a fight would have taken place which shows a large difference.

This historical text can be evidence to show that adults have made “protecting and controlling the young as an obsession”[19]. This implies that this text shows the way teenagers are being controlled by teachers and their parents which creates the ideology that they may be the cause of teenage delinquency behaviour. Bender’s parents are said to be the kind of characters who beat their son up which shows that his parents made him who he is. Bender is seen to be confirming this as this is what everyone thinks about him even though it is not him and is an act. Similarly, the 1986 film, ‘Stand by me’ depicts the lives of four children searching for an adventure. Chris is assumed to be a ‘bad kid’ by everyone in the story, including the protagonist’s, Gordy’s father due to the fact that his brother, nicknamed ‘Eyeball’ is part of a gang, led by ‘Ace’ an ex-con. This implies parents may be wrong whereas an emphasis is only being made on teenagers as the dominant groups are also responsible for this stereotype on teenagers.

The media holds a vital part in the representation of teenagers and can be the reason for this representation. This is shown as the media is known to find teenagers as “easy targets and plenty of materials for sensational journalism”[20]. The media is ‘using’ teenagers in order to gain a larger audience that will be attracted and create a moral panic. Youth is known to provide the audience with “ample opportunities for negative representations of young people”[21]. This connotes that the media is using this opportunity wisely and creating a stereotype of teenagers which will attract customers. This relates to the Uses and Gratifications theory as the audience will be interested in what is happening in the media and therefore links to surveillance. Teenagers have become a “source of titillation for the older viewers”[22] due to teenagers becoming an amusement topic which is reinforced by the way teenagers are represented in movies. The stereotype that is labelled on teenagers has been created mainly through “alarming stories about high school shootings, property crimes and incidents involving so-called youth gangs”[23]. This implies teenagers are being a social factor due to the way the media is carefully constructing this stereotype.

Overall, looking at contemporary and historical media texts, it is clear that the representation of teenagers has changed in a very negative way. This is shown in ‘The Breakfast Club’, which represents teenagers in a negative light and enforces this idea that teenagers are trouble makers, which is emphasised at the very start of the movie by informing the audience that they are in detention. Their use of drugs, lack of respect for teachers, violence, damaging school property, and breaking the rules continuously throughout the movie emphasises this negative representation whereas in contemporary texts such as ’Superbad’ there is a use of knives, guns and an obsession over girls. Hollywood is known to create “unrealistic expectations”[24] of teenagers, thus targeting the group, making them central to negative exposure by major institutions. This may be because of teenagers being a subordinate group who are controlled by dominant groups which refers to hegemony as no matter what teenagers do, their stereotype will remain. This could result to teenagers knowing that they have no impact on the changing state of their representation, they choose to conform to it and therefore cause the media to have more negative exposure on them and as Galtung and Ruge said, negativity sells. Looking at the representation of teenagers in a historical and contemporary view, in many texts over time, it is clear the portrayal of teenagers is not improving yearly but is becoming negatively extreme. The stereotypes overall are being reinforced but we as teenagers are misunderstood as “we’re people, just like everyone else”[25].

Word Count – 2193

[1] The Breakfast Club (1985)

[2] Glee (website)

[3] Nicholos, J, Price, J (1998) p44.

[4] Casey, B, Casey, N, Calvert, B, French, L, Lewis, J (2002) p229.

[5] Sardar, Z, Loon, B (2000) p77.

[6] Doherty, T (1988) p124

[7] Blandford, S (2001) p238.

[8] Neale, S (2000) p119.

[9] Cook, P, Bernink, M Eds (1999) p218.

[10] Teen stereotype (website)

[11] Teenagers in today’s society (website)

[12] O’Sullivian, T, Dutton, B, Rayner, P (1994) p86.

[13] Representation and youth (website)

[14] Curran, J, Gurevitah, M Eds (2005) p341

[15] Bennett, P, Slater, J, Wall, P (2006) p77.

[16] Carter, C, Weaver, C.K (2003) p52.

[17] Valdivia, A (2005) p227.

[18] Bennett, P, Slater, J, Wall, P (2006) p81.

[19] Provert, D, Graham, A (2008) p135.

[20] Ibid. p135

[21] Brignell, J (2004) p240.

[22] Ibid p240

[23] Youth stereotyping and its impact (website)

[24] Hollywood’s obsession with the perfect prom (website)

[25] A teenager speaking out against teenage stereotype (website)

Critical Investigation Penultimate Draft

2010-03-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

An investigation into the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions and how this has changed over the years.

The representation of teenagers in the media has continuously evolved over the years. This is shown through programmes ‘Saved by the Bell’ in comparison to ‘Glee’ where the representation of teenagers has significantly changed when comparing to an older text and a contemporary text. In 1990’s programmes such as ‘Saved by the Bell’ for example, teenagers are represented as considerably more innocent and more like what today’s society would consider as ‘geeks’. The contemporary text ‘Glee’ emphasises the innocent representation of earlier programmes by depicting a group of more worldly “aspiring underdogs”[2] trying to get the best out of life. Other contemporary texts such as ‘Take the Lead’ also follow this idea of aspiring to be better, but only to an extent, as they also show that teenagers are involved in gang crime. Teenagers have been represented both positively and extremely negatively which has created moral panic in wider society. This essay will be exploring the representation of teenagers in contemporary mainstream Hollywood texts such as ’17 Again’ (2009) and ‘Glee’, compared to older mainstream Hollywood texts such as ‘The Breakfast Club’ (1985) and ‘Saved by the Bell’. Murphy believes ideas become stereotypes that are "unrealistic" and "unsatisfactory"[3] which could be the case when looking at teenagers which will be explored in this essay.

Indeed, "today it is widely recognised that stereotypes are inaccurate, simplistic generalisations about a group of individuals that may lead to particular perceptions of the group by others"[4]. Is this the case with teenagers? Youths have repeatedly been represented in a “negative way thus creating folk devils”[5] within movies due to the unbalanced image that has been constructed. This representation can be found in such films as ’17 Again’ and ‘Superbad’. In ’17 Again’, teenagers are shown to be continuously getting into fights and having sex. Similarly, ‘Superbad’ shows the teenage boys being sexually obsessed over the ‘hot girls’. This shows that the customary stereotypes of teenagers are being reinforced in dominant, high-grossing films and Hollywood institutions are not challenging ideologies but are pandering to the lowest common denominator so that Hollywood has been “decisively juvenalized”[6]. However, in the film 'High School Musical' (2006), teenagers are represented as passionate towards their singing which is a representation that is challenging stereotypes and therefore demonstrating the evolution of teenage stereotypes in mainstream Hollywood productions. This relates to Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotics theory as different interpretations are being created in which is resulting to the audience having different interpretations of teenagers. Yet essentially, Lewis believes that, "teen films are addressing major issues like alienation, delinquency, rebellion, sex and gender"[7].

During the Twentieth Century in America, social policies and institutions began to treat those under 20 as "both distinct and separate from adults“[8]. This demonstrates that over time the stereotypes of teenagers have changed in the media as in the 20th century, this representation of teenagers began. This representation is shown in films such as ’17 Again’ where a medium shot is used when a fight breaks out in school. The use of close ups are used to help emphasise the feeling of each character involved in the fight which mainly revolves around Mike (played by Zac Efron). There is a clear opposition between the ‘jocks’ and the ‘nerds’ which relates to personal identity according to the Uses and Gratification theory as teenagers may find this film similar to themselves as due to the distinction between jocks and nerds. This may be as teenagers may face a situation where they are seen as the ‘nerd’ and may be able to watch these type of films and be able to relate to them.

Furthermore, in parallel fashion, Hollywood has always made films about young people. They have also made films designed or presumed to cater for what it called, “'the juve trade' - juvenile spectators”[9]. This was the case while comparing this contemporary text to a historical texts as there was a difference in the stereotypes of teenagers from how it is now which was shown the jocks in the film are continuously threatening to kill and stab their enemies whereas no violence as such takes place. These type of films have created a representation in parent’s minds too that every middle school student is, “gossip ridden, hormone-raging and naive”[10] which shows the way in which parents are easily willing to “pin these stereotypes to their children, and then judge them accordingly”[11]. This has resulted to becoming a social factor in the public mainly due to parental concerns. This demonstrates that it is as if Hollywood is purposely producing films on teenagers for fashion as if teenagers are a trend. This relates to social factors as it connotes that the emphasise of these Hollywood films are resulting to teenagers becoming a social topic with the public and youth groups continuously being targeted which creates the ideology that they do not fit in to society. This has then resulted to an increase in moral panics being generated about teenagers, and due to this, the representation of teenagers are also becoming even more negative.

Also, Martin Barker (1998) describes the concept of stereotypes as a “useless tool for investigating texts for misrepresenting the ‘real world’”[12]. This implies that the stereotypes of teenagers are misrepresenting the ‘real world’ and are exaggerated. This is shown in the film ‘Step up 2: The Streets’ (2008) as teenagers are being misrepresented due to teenagers taking part in street dance and dancing illegally which creates the ideology that they are wrong. This refers to the reception theory as not all of the audience will watch this film and gain a negative view of teenagers whereas some of the audience may interpret this text in a different way depending on their gender, age, class and ethnicity. This implies that this film has reinforced the stereotypes of teenagers due to teenagers wanting to fulfil their passion of dancing and as the film’s title mentions “the streets” it reinforces the negative stereotype of teenagers being trouble makers as representations show teenagers hanging about the street usually as thugs.

Is this negative representation of teenagers being created in to a moral panic due to the way that the media is portraying teenagers? The media is known to have “the power through selection and reinforcement to give us very influential portrayals of a whole range of groups”[13]. This shows that, with reference to the hypodermic needle model, due to the media and its texts, the audience is then being injected ideas in to their minds which has created a moral panic. This is also shown as the media organise power through stereotypical representations that “re inscribe social rules and roles”[14] which shows that the media plays a part in the stereotypes of teenagers. This has resulted in teenagers being represented in the media as negative and violent groups, resulting in the evolution of moral panics.

In a historical perspective, the representation of teenagers has changed over the years in a range of ways in Hollywood productions. The theorist, Marshal Mcluhan, dubbed the media that they “rarely see by accident and never without interest”[15] which shows the media wanting to gain an audience for their benefit. This change has been shown as can be depicted in the Hollywood film ‘Rebel without a Cause’ (1955). The film shows that; teenagers in the 50’s were not represented as negatively as they are now as shown in ‘Rebel without a Cause’; the movie shows the protagonist, Jim, is continuously trying to prove himself to his friends by switchblade knife fights and dangerous driving. In this film there is violence present but it is not as much as now as no murder scenes are shown or abuse towards peers whereas it is in contemporary films.

In the 90’s, the hegemonic stereotype of teenagers was that they were disrespectful towards teachers and were portrayed as extremely immature. Throughout the years, this negative stereotype has developed into an even more negative stereotype and has now become a threat in the media, creating moral panics against teenagers. In earlier movies, children in education were shown to give their teachers an apple as a sign of respect (the apple being a symbol of knowledge which could either be reference to the tree of knowledge in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, or the fact that Einstein discovered gravity with an apple galling on his head). ‘Rebel without a Cause’ shows teenagers answering back to teachers and arguing with them instead of embracing the knowledge given to them by their teachers. The theorist, Barry (1999) believes ‘Rebel without a Cause’ was “deeply alarming in their portrayal of teenagers willing to defy school teachers”[16]. As previously discussed, the representation of teenagers seem to have become even more negative than it was in the 90’s, which now seems ‘innocent’ compared to the violent, threatening stereotypes we are not presented with which shows “youth have once again become the object of public analysis”[17]. This as a result has resulted to teenagers becoming a part of social interaction according to the Uses and Gratifications theory as the public now gain an insight in the circumstances of teenagers.

Another historical Hollywood media text that can raise awareness on the difference of the representation of teenagers is ‘The Breakfast Club’. Tessa Parking (1997) believed that “we tend to make assumptions about stereotypes which can themselves be misleading”[18]. This could be the case when looking at ‘The Breakfast Club’ as this text looks at teenagers negatively. For example, throughout the film, a group of five stereotypes, a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal are shown in Saturday detention. In one particular scene of the movie, when Andrew (played by Emilio Estevez) picks a fight with Bender (played by Judd Nelson) for making Claire (played by Molly Ringwald) feel uncomfortable. This immediately shows a negative representation of teenagers which is emphasised by Bender telling Andrew that he doesn’t want to get into a fight with him because “I’d kill you!” He then pulls out a knife which anchors the meaning even more. Although, it’s implied in ‘The Breakfast Club’, no one ever sees Bender do anything too bad, he seems to be all talk, when the teacher threatens him in the store room, he doesn’t attack him. In today’s society, if that had happened, a fight would have taken place which shows a large difference.

This historical text can also be evidence to show that adults have made “protecting and controlling the young as an obsession”[19]. This implies that this text shows the way in which teenagers are being controlled by both teachers and their parents which creates the ideology that they may have been the cause of teenager’s delinquency behaviour. Bender’s parents are said to be the kind of characters who beat their son up which shows that his parents made him who he is. Bender is seen to be confirming this as this is what everyone thinks about him even though it is not him and is all an act. This is similar to the 1986 film, ‘Stand by me’ which depicts the lives of four children searching for an adventure. Chris (played by River Phoenix) is assumed to be a ‘bad kid’ by everyone in the story, including the protagonist’s, Gordy’s father due to the fact that his brother, nicknamed ‘Eyeball’ if part of a gang, led by ‘Ace’ an ex-con. This idea of Chris being stereotyped is evident when Gordy’s father tells him that he doesn’t want him playing with Chris anymore because he’s a thief as everyone thinks he stole a kid’s milk money from school. This implies parents may also be wrong whereas an emphasise is only being made on teenagers as the dominant groups are also responsible for this stereotype which has been labelled on teenagers.

The media holds a vital part in the representation of teenagers who can also be the reason for this representation. This is shown as the media is also known to find teenagers as “easy targets and plenty of materials for sensational journalism”[20]. This implies that the media may be reinforcing this representation of teenagers which has resulted to Hollywood films using this representation. The media is in a way ‘using’ teenagers in order to gain a larger audience who will be attracted to read an issue which will create a moral panic. Youth is known to provide the audience with “ample opportunities for negative representations of young people”[21]. This connotes that the media is using this opportunity wisely and creating a stereotype of teenagers which will attract more customers. This relates to the Uses and Gratifications theory as the audience will be interested in what is going on in the media and therefore links to surveillance. Teenagers have also become a “source of titillation for the older viewer”[22] due to teenagers becoming an amusement topic for adults and that is reinforced by the way in which teenagers are presented in Hollywood productions. The stereotype that has been labelled on teenagers, the impression has been created mainly through “media coverage and alarming stories about high school shootings, property crimes and incidents involving so-called youth gangs”[23]. This implies teenagers are being a social factor due to the way the media is carefully constructing this stereotype.

Overall, looking at both contemporary and historical media texts, it is very clear that the representation of teenagers has changed in a very negative way. This is shown in the text, ‘The Breakfast Club’, which presents teenagers in a negative light and enforces this idea that all teenagers are trouble makers, which is emphasised at the very start of the movie by informing the audience that they are in Saturday detention. Their use of drugs, lack of respect for teachers, violence, damaging school property, and breaking the rules continuously throughout the movie emphasises this negative representation of them whereas in contemporary texts such as ’Superbad’ there is a more use of knives, guns and an obsession over girls and sexual activities. Hollywood is known to create “unrealistic expectations”[24] of teenagers, thus targeting the group, making them central to negative exposure by major institutions. This has been created due to teenagers being a subordinate group who are being controlled by dominant groups which refers to hegemony as no matter what teenagers do, their stereotype will not be removed. This could result to teenagers knowing that they have no impact on the changing state of their representation, they choose to conform to it and therefore cause the media to have more negative exposure on them and as Galtung and Ruge said, negativity sells. By looking at the representation of teenagers in a historical and contemporary view, a range of texts over a variety of years, it is clear that the portrayal of teenagers is not improving year by year but is becoming more negatively extreme. The stereotypes of teenagers overall is being reinforced but we as teenagers are misunderstood as “we’re people, just like everyone else”[25].

Word count – 2618

[1] The Breakfast Club (1985)

[2] Glee (website)

[3] Nicholos, J, Price, J (1998) p44.

[4] Casey, B, Casey, N, Calvert, B, French, L, Lewis, J (2002) p229.

[5] Sardar, Z, Loon, B (2000) p77.

[6] Doherty, T (1988) p124

[7] Blandford, S (2001) p238.

[8] Neale, S (2000) p119.

[9] Cook, P, Bernink, M Eds (1999) p218.

[10] Teen stereotype (website)

[11] Teenagers in today’s society (website)

[12] O’Sullivian, T, Dutton, B, Rayner, P (1994) p86.

[13] Representation and youth (website)

[14] Curran, J, Gurevitah, M Eds (2005) p341

[15] Bennett, P, Slater, J, Wall, P (2006) p77.

[16] Carter, C, Weaver, C.K (2003) p52.

[17] Valdivia, A (2005) p227.

[18] Bennett, P, Slater, J, Wall, P (2006) p81.

[19] Provert, D, Graham, A (2008) p135.

[20] Ibid. p135

[21] Brignell, J (2004) p240.

[22] Ibid p240

[23] Youth stereotyping and its impact (website)

[24] Hollywood’s obsession with the perfect prom (website)

[25] A teenager speaking out against teenage stereotype (website)

Critical Investigation 2nd Draft..

2010-03-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

An investigation into the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions and how this has changed over the years.

The representation of teenagers in the media has continuously evolved over the years. This is shown through programmes such as ‘Saved by the Bell’ in comparison to ‘Glee’ where the representation of teenagers has changed compared to an older text and a contemporary text. This can be demonstrated through the comparison of older texts to contemporary texts. In programmes such as ‘Saved by the Bell’ for example, teenagers are represented as innocent and what today’s society would consider as geeks. ‘Glee’ emphasises the innocent representation of elder generation programmes by depicting a group of “aspiring underdogs”[2] trying to get the best out of life. Although, other contemporary texts such as ‘Take the Lead’ also follow this idea of aspiring to be better, to an extent, they also show that teenagers are involved in gang crime. Teenagers have been represented both positively and extremely negatively which has created moral panic in wider society. This essay will be exploring the representation of teenagers in contemporary mainstream Hollywood texts such as ’17 Again’ (2009) and ‘Glee’, compared to older mainstream Hollywood texts such as ‘The Breakfast Club’ (1985) and ‘Saved by the Bell’. The theorist, Murphy believes that ideas become stereotypes that are "unrealistic" and "unsatisfactory"[3] which could be the case when looking at the teenagers that will be explored in this essay.

Indeed, "today it is widely recognised that stereotypes are inaccurate, simplistic generalisations about a group of individuals that may lead to particular perceptions of the group by others"[4]. Is this the case with teenagers? Youths have repeatedly been represented in a “negative way thus creating folk devils”[5] within movies due to the unbalanced image that has been constructed. This representation can be found in such films as ’17 Again’ and ‘Superbad’. In ’17 Again’, teenagers are shown to be continuously getting in to fights and having sex. Similarly, ‘Superbad’ shows the teenage boys being sexually obsessed over the ‘hot girls’. This shows that the customary stereotypes of teenagers are being reinforced in dominant, high-grossing films and Hollywood institutions are not challenging ideologies but are pandering to the lowest common denominator so that Hollywood has been “decisively juvenalized”[6]. However, in the film 'High School Musical' (2006), teenagers are represented as passionate towards their singing which is a representation that is challenging stereotypes and therefore demonstrating the evolution of teenage stereotypes in mainstream Hollywood productions. This relates to semiotics theory as different interpretations are being created in different media texts which has resulted to the audience having different interpretations of teenagers. Lewis who believes that, "teen films are addressing major issues like alienation, delinquency, rebellion, sex and gender"[7]. This connotes that different types of films are looking at different issues which are currently social factors in the public.

During the Twentieth Century in America, social policies and institutions began to treat those under 20 as "both distinct and separate from adults“[8]. This connotes that over time the stereotypes of teenagers has changed in the media as in the 20th century, this representation of teenagers began as they were stereotyped negatively which resulted to a moral panic. This representation is shown in films such as ’17 Again’ where a medium shot is used when a fight breaks out in school. The use of close ups are used to help emphasise the feeling of each character involved in the fight which mainly revolves around Mike (played by Zac Efron). There is a clear opposition between the ‘jocks’ and the ‘nerds’ which relates to personal identity according to the Uses and Gratification theory as teenagers may find this film similar to themselves as there is always a distinction between jocks and nerds. This may be as teenagers may face a situation where they are seen as the ‘nerd’ and may be able to watch these type of films and be able to relate to them as they may be in the same situation due to facing a distinction in school.

Furthermore, "in parallel fashion, Hollywood has always made films about young people (Considine, 1981). They have also made films designed or presumed to cater for what it called, 'the juve trade' - juvenile spectators”[9]. This was the case while comparing this contemporary text to a historical texts as there was a difference in the stereotypes of teenagers from how it is now which was shown the jocks in the film are continuously threatening to kill and stab their enemies whereas no violence as such takes place. These type of films have created a representation in parent’s minds too that every middle school student is, “gossip ridden, hormone-raging and naive”[10] which shows the way in which parents are easily willing to “pin these stereotypes to their children, and then judge them accordingly”[11]. This has resulted to becoming a social factor in the public mainly due to parental concerns. This connotes that the representations of teenagers has changed of teenagers over time and has now become an extremely negative representation. This shows that it is as if Hollywood is purposely producing films on teenagers for fashion as if teenagers are a trend. This relates to social factors as it connotes that the emphasise of these Hollywood films are resulting to teenagers becoming a social topic with the public and youth groups continuously being targeted which creates the ideology that they do not fit in to society and the representation has changed in the media negatively from a historical view. This has then resulted to an increase in moral panics being generated about teenagers, and due to this, the representation of teenagers are also becoming even more negative.

In addition, Martin Barker (1998) describes the concept of stereotypes as a “useless tool for investigating texts for misrepresenting the ‘real world’”[12]. This implies that the stereotypes of teenagers are misrepresenting the ‘real world’ and are exaggerated. This is shown in the film ‘Step up 2: The Streets’ (2008) as teenagers are being misrepresented due to teenagers taking part in street dance and dancing illegally which is creating the ideology that they are wrong because of this. This refers to the reception theory as not all of the audience will watch this film and gain a negative view of teenagers whereas some of the audience may interpret this text in a different way depending on their gender, age, class and ethnicity. This connotes that this Hollywood film has reinforced the stereotypes of teenagers just due to teenagers wanting to fulfil their passion of dancing and as the film’s title mentions “the streets” it reinforces the negative stereotype of teenagers being trouble makers as representations show teenagers hanging about the street usually as thugs.

Furthermore, is this negative representation of teenagers being created in to a moral panic due to the way that the media is portraying teenagers? The media is known to have “the power through selection and reinforcement to give us very influential portrayals of a whole range of groups”[13]. This connotes that, with reference to the hypodermic needle model, due to the media and its texts, the audience is then being injected ideas in to their minds which has resulted to a moral panic on teenagers. This is also shown as the media organise power through stereotypical representations that “re inscribe social rules and roles”[14] which shows that the media plays a part in the view of teenagers. This has resulted in teenagers being represented in the media as negative and violent groups, resulting in the evolution of moral panics about teenagers.

In a historical perspective, the representation of teenagers has changed over the years in a range of ways in Hollywood productions. The theorist, Marshal Mcluhan he dubbed the media that they “rarely see by accident and never without interest”[15] which shows that the representation of teenagers may have been created continuously by the media due to them wanting to gain an audience for their benefit which has resulted to the historical change in the stereotypes of teenagers in Hollywood productions. This change has been shown as can be depicted in the Hollywood film ‘Rebel without a Cause’ (1955). The film shows that; teenagers in the 50’s were not represented as negatively as they are now. This is shown as in ‘Rebel without a Cause’; the movie shows the protagonist, Jim is continuously trying to prove himself to his friends by switchblade knife fights and dangerous driving. This implies that in this film there is violence present but it is not as much as now as any murder scenes are shown or abuse towards peers whereas it is in contemporary films.

In the 90’s, the hegemonic stereotype of teenagers was that they were disrespectful towards teachers and were portrayed as extremely immature. Throughout the years, this negative stereotype has developed into an even more negative stereotype and has now become a threat in the media, creating moral panics against teenagers. In earlier movies, children in education were shown to give their teachers an apple as a sign of respect (the apple being a symbol of knowledge which could either be reference to the tree of knowledge in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, or the fact that Einstein discovered gravity with an apple galling on his head). ‘Rebel without a Cause’ shows teenagers answering back to teachers and arguing with them instead of embracing the knowledge given to them by their teachers. The theorist, Barry (1999) believes that ‘Rebel without a Cause’ was “deeply alarming in their portrayal of teenagers willing to defy school teachers”[16]. As previously discussed, the representation of teenagers seem to have become even more negative than it was in the 90’s, which now seems ‘innocent’ compared to the violent, threatening stereotype we are not presented with which shows “youth have once again become the object of public analysis”[17]. This as a result has resulted to teenagers becoming a part of social interaction according to the Uses and Gratifications theory as the public know gain an insight in the circumstances of teenagers.

Another historical media text that can raise awareness on the difference of the representation of teenagers is the Hollywood media text ‘The Breakfast Club’. Tessa Parking (1997) believed that “we tend to make assumptions about stereotypes which can themselves be misleading”[18]. This could be the case when looking at ‘The Breakfast Club’ as this text looks at teenagers negatively whereas it is not largely negative. For example, throughout the film, a group of five stereotypes, a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal are shown in Saturday detention. In one particular scene of the movie, when Andrew (played by Emilio Estevez) picks a fight with Bender (played by Judd Nelson) for making Claire (played by Molly Ringwald) feel uncomfortable. This immediately shows a negative representation of teenagers which is emphasised by Bender telling Andrew that he doesn’t want to get into a fight with him because “I’d kill you!” He then pulls out a knife which anchors the meaning even more. This shows that it is a negative representation of teenagers as they are in detention and are getting in to fights. Although, it’s implied in ‘The Breakfast Club’, no one ever sees Bender do anything too bad, he seems to be all talk, when the teacher threatens him in the store room, he doesn’t attach him. In today’s society, if that had happened, a fight would have taken place! This is different to the representation of teenagers now as teenagers are now committing murders and getting involved in much more violent activities.

This historical text can also be evidence to show that adults have made “protecting and controlling the young as an obsession”[19]. This implies that this text shows the way in which teenagers are being controlled by both teachers and their parents which creates the ideology that they may have been the cause of teenager’s delinquency behaviour. Bender’s parents are said to be the kind of characters who beat their son up which shows that his parents made him who he is. Bender is seen to be confirming this as this is what everyone thinks about him even though it is not him and is all an act. This is similar to the 1986 film, ‘Stand by me’ which depicts the lives of four children searching for an adventure. Chris (played by River Phoenix) is assumed to be a ‘bad kid’ by everyone in the story, including the protagonist’s, Gordy’s father due to the fact that his brother, nicknamed ‘Eyeball’ if part of a gang, led by ‘Ace’ an ex-con. This idea of Chris being stereotyped is evident when Gordy’s father tells him that he doesn’t want him playing with Chris anymore because he’s a thief as everyone thinks he stole a kid’s milk money from school. This implies that the parents may also be wrong whereas an emphasise is only being made on teenagers which results to moral panics on them but the dominant groups are also responsible for this stereotype which has been labelled on teenagers.

In addition, the media holds a vital part in the representation of teenagers who can also be the reason for this representation. This is shown as the media is also known to find teenagers as “easy targets and plenty of materials for sensational journalism”[20]. This implies that the media may be reinforcing this representation of teenagers which has then resulted to Hollywood films also using this representation. Also, this shows that the media is in a way ‘using’ teenagers in order to gain larger audience who will be attracted to read an issue which will create a moral panic. “Youth has always provided the audience with ample opportunities for negative representations of young people”[21]. This connotes that the media is using this opportunity wisely and creating a stereotype of teenagers which will attract more customers and benefit them. This relates to the Uses and Gratifications theory as the audience will be interested in what is going on in the media and therefore links to surveillance. This will mean that the audience will continuously hear about teenagers which will result to the audience believing this. Teenagers have also become a “source of titillation for the older viewer”[22] due to teenagers becoming an amusement topic for adults and that is reinforced by the way in which teenagers are presented in Hollywood productions. By looking at the stereotype that has been labelled on teenagers the impression has been created mainly through “media coverage and alarming stories about high school shootings, property crimes and incidents involving so-called youth gangs”[23]. This implies that teenagers are being a social factor due to the way in which the media is carefully constructing this stereotype.

Overall, by looking at both contemporary and historical media texts, it is very clear that the representation of the teenagers have changed in a very negative way. This can be demonstrated in the media text, ‘The Breakfast Club’, which presents teenagers in a negative light and enforces this idea that all teenagers are trouble makers, which is emphasised at the very start of the movie by informing the audience that they’re all in Saturday detention. Their use of drugs, lack of respect for teachers, violence, damaging school property, and breaking the rules continuously throughout the movie emphasises this negative representation of them whereas in contemporary texts such as ’Superbad’. Hollywood is known to create “unrealistic expectations”[24] of teenagers, thus targeting the group, making them central to negative exposure by major institutions. This could be the reason of the resulting moral panic as teenagers are being seen as dangerous and a threat to the media. This moral panic has been created due to teenagers being a subordinate group who are being controlled by the dominant groups which refers to hegemony as no matter what teenagers do, their labelled stereotype will not be removed. This could cause more of a moral panic as knowing that they have no impact on the changing state of their representation, teenagers choose to conform to it and therefore cause the media to have more negative exposure on them and as Galtung and Ruge said, negativity sells. By looking at the representation of teenagers in a historical and contemporary view, a range of texts over a variety of years, it is clear that the portrayal of teenagers is not improving year by year but is becoming more negatively extreme. This shows that overall the stereotypes of teenagers is being reinforced but we as teenagers are misunderstood as “we’re people, just like everyone else”[25].

Word Count – 2869

[1] The Breakfast Club (1985)

[2] www.e4.com/glee

[3] Nicholos, J, Price, J (1998) p44.

[4] Casey, B, Casey, N, Calvert, B, French, L, Lewis, J (2002) p229.

[5] Sardar, Z, Loon, B (2000) p77.

[6] Doherty, T (1988) p124

[7] Blandford, S (2001) p238.

[8] Neale, S (2000) p119.

[9] Cook, P, Bernink, M Eds (1999) p218.

[10] www.teen-culture.suite101.com/article.cfm/teen_stereotypes

[11] www.helium.com/items/1438882-teenagers

[12] O’Sullivian, T, Dutton, B, Rayner, P (1994) p86.

[13] www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/repsyouth.html

[14] Curran, J, Gurevitah, M Eds (2005) p341

[15] Bennett, P, Slater, J, Wall, P (2006) p77.

[16] Carter, C, Weaver, C.K (2003) p52.

[17] Valdivia, A (2005) p227.

[18] Bennett, P, Slater, J, Wall, P (2006) p81.

[19] Provert, D, Graham, A (2008) p135.

[20] Ibid. p135

[21] Brignell, J (2004) p240.

[22] Brignell, J (2004) p240

[23] http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/toolkit/stereotypes/youth_stereotypes_news.cfm

[24] www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/05/18/hollywood_s_obsession_with_the_perfect_p

[25] www.momaroo.com/696329679/a-teenager-speaking-out-against-teenage-stereotypes/

Cover Design Draft 3 - Using Rajit Sihat's Feedback

2010-03-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Feedback from a Graphic Designer (Ranjit Sihat)

2010-03-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

Front Cover:

The line in between the date and price needs to be central.
The central image of Taylor Lautner needs to be moved over a few mms in order for the "Who's Afraid" to be shown properly.
The writing at the bottom of the cover needs to be central compared to the hearts on the page.
The word "Teen" shouldn't be overlapped with the word "Simply".
The white border on the magazine front cover needs to be equal.

The opacity of the image needs to be reduced.
The white line surrounding the central image needs to be taken off

Contents:

The word "February" shouldn't overlap the word "Contents".
The "O" in "On the Cover" needs to be in line with the word "Contents".
The alignment on the right hand side needs to be changed - for example, the number "27" is too close to the picture of Besard and Ardit.
The spacing in the contents box needs to be equal - for example, the gap between "Fashion" and "33" needs to be the same as the others.
The writing following page "33" on the brainstorm is unfinished.

Progress Report

2010-03-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

14th March - 19th March:

This week we completed the advertisement which we done for a perfume, we done the contents page, we made a new front cover for the magazine (from the feedback we gained) and we have started Aqeel's article. We have achieved quite a lot this week as now we only have to complete Aqeel's article and then do Jawaria's and Gurpreet's article.

22nd March - 26th March:

On this week we will be working on finishing Aqeel's article which we will do once we get the interview answers for the interview that we have decided to do in the article. Once we have completed the article, we will begin working on Gurpreet's and Jawaria's.

Action Plan

2010-03-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

22nd March - 26 March:

This week we will finish of Aqeel's article that we have started. We have so far done the layout of it and we just need to add in the interview and the images. Once thats done, We will start Gurpreet's article next which we won't finish by this week but it will be started.

Personalised Plan of Targets and Next Steps . . .

2010-03-18T07:26:00.001-07:00

Critical Investigation

Plan of Targets:

- One of my targets will be to look through my punctuation to ensure that I am spelling words properly and my writing style is appropriate. This would ensure that the essay is in a appropriate format

- The second target for my critical investigation will be to make sure that all the sentences are making sense and that my points are clear. By this it would be clear about the points that I wil make.

- The third target would be to try to use as many theories, issues and debates and key concepts as I can. This would allow me to refer my points to theories to back it up and make what I am trying to say clear.

Plan of Next Steps:

- One of my next steps will be to reworking every sentence to make sure that my points are clear and obvious on what I am trying to say.

- Another one of my next steps will be to gather more research to use in the essay. This would mean that I would need to get more quotes to justify my points.

- Another next step would be to make sure the essay is not repetitive. This would make sure that I can fit in more points to make the essay effective and not have things being repeated.

2010-03-17T14:53:00.001-07:00

Contents Page

2010-03-17T14:41:00.001-07:00

New Front Cover

2010-03-17T01:59:00.001-07:00

Self Assessment of Critical Investigation

2010-03-16T12:44:00.001-07:00

WWW:

- Used some media terminology
- Clear points on what trying to say
- Some use of theory

EBI:

- Improve punctuation
- Rewrite some sentences that are not clear
- Use more theory to make answers clear and specific to gain a higher level.

Grade - C

Action Plan

2010-03-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

22nd Match - 25th March:

This week we will be focusing on Jawaria's article and Gurpreet's article. By the end of the week we will have hoped to have completed both the articles and made sure that we have all the images that we need for the articles.

Progress Report

2010-03-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

14th March - 19th March:

This week we will be working on the contents page and advertisement for the magazine. We will be hoping to complete this by the end of the week and start one of our articles which is Aqeel's article. By this we will be ensuring that we can compelte most of our magazine as soon as possible and then after this we can work on the articles only.

Magazine Front Cover . .

2010-03-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

Teenage Magazine Analysis

2010-03-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

Teen Vogue Magazine Analysis

2010-03-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

Teen Vogue Magazine Analysis

2010-03-02T10:35:00.000-08:00

Bliss Magazine Analysis

2010-03-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Magazine Pitch

2010-02-25T11:46:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

C:\Fakepath\Magazine Picth

View more presentations from Jawaria.

Progress Report

2010-02-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

Progress Report For Linked Production

Week 1 (15th Feb - 19th Feb) - In this week, we started to look at our competitors magazines. We went out and bought a few magazines of our main competitors and we started to analyse the codes and conventions it uses. We also began to made notes on what ideas we can get from competitors that we can use in our magazine. We carried out a couple of analysis on teen magazines to understand in a better view of how to create a teen magazine that will reach out to teenagers. We looked at magazines such as Bliss, Twist, Sugar and J14 who will be our main competitors.

Week 2 (22nd Feb - 26th Feb) - In this week, we are starting to take more pictures for our magazine because we found that the images that we already have are not enough. We started going around and taking pictures that will be useful for our magazine and will be able to relate to teenagers. For example, we got an image showing teenage romance which is likely to appeal to female teenagers. As the images for the magazine have been completed and we now have enough, we have started to think about the image that we can use for the front cover too. We have considered using Taylor Lautner as he is popular with teenage girls but we can't seem to find the right image as yet . . . .

Action Plan

2010-02-24T10:16:00.002-08:00

Action plan for Linked Production:

Week 1 (15th Feb - 19th Feb) - Start researching more magazines and looking at the codes and conventions used. We will need to do this by looking at our competitors closely e.g. Bliss. We will also need to look at the publishers of the magazine to see what publishers we have to compete with. This week will be based on just researching competitors and making sure we have as much information that we need on the competitors.

Week 2 (22nd Feb - 26th Feb) - This week we will need to focus on the images that we are going to use for the magazine. We will need to make sure that we have enough images and if we need any more. This will involve looking at the images that we will need for the actual features and the image that we will use for the front cover as we will need to find an attractive front cover image.

Week 3 (1st March - 5th March) - Start doing mock ups. We will need to focus on the mock ups of the magazine and its features this week to make sure that we have some idea of what layout to follow for the magazine. This will also help us to plan our magazine and ensure that it is well thought. In this week, we will just be focusing on mock ups and doing a couple of mock ups each and seeing which one is the best for the magazine.

Week 4 (8th March - 12th March) - After finalising the mock up we have chosen for the magazine, we will begin to create the front cover of the magazine and do one feature which will be the feautre on gang movies which is based on Aqeel's critical investigation. By this we will be able to get it done quickly as we will have the whole week for the front cover and the feature. We will need to construct the front cover as a teen magazines would be like and write the article for the feature and add in the suitable images required for the feature.

Week 5 (15th March - 19th March) - This week we will focus on the second feature which is on celebrity influence which is based on Gurpreet's critical investigation. By this we will be able to do each feature week by week to ensure that we are spending as much time on it as possible and not rushing it. This will also make sure that the article can be adjusted around in the week and that we are writing the article in a teen style to ensure that the teens are attracted.

Week 6 (22nd March - 26th March) - This week we will focus on the last feature which is on typical teenagers and is based on Jawaria's critical investigation. We will have a week to do this feature too which will ensure that we have plently of time for each feature to be completed. In this week, we will also put together all of the magazine and see how it looks together and if it has a slight problem, we can also adjust that in this week to ensure that everything is fine with the magazine and up to date.

Self Evaluation

2010-02-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

The pitch that we presented for our Critical Investigation, the freedback we received is shown below:

WWW:

* The feedback we receieved for WWW is that we found that the class thought that our presentation was very detailed and organised. This was because we had mentioned a lot of media related things in our presentation in order for it to seem like a pitch in reality.

* Another one of our WWW was that we had excellent presentation skills as we were having a conversation within our presentation. This made the class feel that we were presented in an excellent way because we had a different style of presenting in order to make sure that everyone is focused on our presentation.

* In our presentation we also had competitor information as we showed the circulation of our competitors. This was a thing that the class liked as it was one of our WWW. This showed that we looked at our competitors in depth and had carried out research on what their circulation is and how we can become better than them.

* Another one of our WWW was that we had balanced work spread. This was because we all had even parts in the presentation when presenting and not only one person was talking. By this it was clear that we had made sure that everyone is given the equal amount of speaking to ensure that everyone is involved.

* We also had a mock up of a magazine on the presentation. This was something that the class liked because we were giving them an idea of how our magazine will look and how it will be better from the competitors magazines. This was something we had thought about because in a pitch we thought there should be a mock up so the audience has an idea of what the magazine will look like.

* Our presentation only had mainly images which was something the class had liked. This meant that there was hardly any writing on the presentation because it was based on images. By this we were making sure that the audience enjoys the presentation because they would not have anything to read but would just watch the images and enjoy the presentation.

EBI:

* The EBI feedback that we got from the class was that the class thought that we should of not read off the paper and we should of talked without the paper. This was because the audience wanted to see us looking up at them more and not looking down and reading off the paper.

* The class also said that they think that we should of been positioned in front of the board and not on the side. This would mean that when we do another presentation we would need to make sure that we are positioned in front of the board so that the audience can see us properly.

* Another EBI that the audience wanted on the presentation is publisher information because we had institution infromation but did not on the publisher. This would mean that we would need to make sure that we have some information on the publisher to show more of our research.

Media Texts For Linked Production . . .

2010-02-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

1. 'Girls life magazine'

http://www.girlslife.com/

* 6 issues per year

* In August of 1994, Girls’ Life magazine hit newsstands across the country. And for the past 15 years, Girls’ Life has continued to grow and sustain its place as the #1 magazine for 10- to 15-year-old girls.

Each issue of GL is packed with the stuff girls crave—real information and advice—from academic success to peer pressure to time-management and stress-relieving tips; from growing up to boosting self-esteem.

Plus, GL profiles real girls facing real challenges that have amazed and inspired readers for almost 15 years.

2. 'J-14 Magazine'

* 10 issues per year

* Targets teenagers by having interesting things that teenagers prefer. For example, singing, prizes, surveys and etc.

* This magazine gets teenagers involved as much as possible by allowing them to give their opinion.

3. 'Teen Vogue'

http://www.elleuk.com/

* Involves dress up games for teenagers to get them involved.

* Section on fashion tips and make up tips.

* All the latest gossip for teenagers to know about.

The magazine that I have chosen to look at is 'Teen Vogue':

Teen Vogue front cover - http://img.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/september-cover__oPt.jpg

* This magazine has a very bright front cover as it consists of bright colours such as pink and baby blue. There is also a use of high key lighting used on the magazine which makes the magazine stand out more and attract the audience to pick it up who will be teenagers. The front cover also has a image of Vanessa Hudgensand her image is the only image on the front cover of the magazine. Her image is large and fits on to the whole front cover, this connotes that this may have been done to attract the audience to buy the magazine as all the teens that prefer Vanessa Hudgens will want to know more about her and purchase the magazine. The magazine front cover also has catchy headings that will attract the audience, for example "22 preppy essentials" which connotes that the magazine is creating a narrative in which young teenage girls will prefer to read the magazine and find out more about these essentials. The magazine also has a heading in which it says "Fall Fashion from A-Z". This shows that teenagers are being represented as caring about their looks and wanting to be up to date with fashion trends which shows that the institution is using these catchy headings as they will know that these kind of things will attract teenage girls.

First Draft. . .

2010-01-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

“I had the craziest dream. I was 17. I was back in high school. It was terrible. Mmmm.” [1]

An investigation into the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions and how this has changed over the years.

The representation of teenagers has continuously known to change over the years within the media. Teenagers have been represented from positively to negatively which has created a moral panic in the media. This essay will be exploring the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions through the three platforms broadcast, e-media and print. This will allow me to look at the different representations that are being created of teenagers in Hollywood productions as the contemporary texts that will be useful in my investigation are texts such as '17 Again' (2009) compared to other Hollywood texts. This shows that this essay will focus upon looking at the representation of teenagers in depth in Hollywood productions and see whether this stereotype is being reinforced or challenged continuously. Murphy believes that ideas become stereotypes that are "unrealistic" and "unsatisfactory" [2] which could be the case when looking at teenagers that will be explored in this essay.

"Today it is widely recognised that stereotypes are inaccurate, simplistic generalisations about a group of individuals that may lead to particular perceptions of the group by others" [3]. Is this the case with teenagers? Youths have continuously been represented in a “negative way thus creating folk devils” [4] within movies due to the personality that has been created. This representation is shown through films such as '17 Again' where teenagers are getting in to fights as the jocks and nerds are always getting in to fights and in the film 'Superbad' (2007) where the boys are obsessed over the girls. This shows that the stereotypes of teenagers are being reinforced in these films and Hollywood institutions are not challenging them but is doing what the media is concerned about as Hollywood has been “decisively juvenalized” [5] towards teenagers. However, in the film 'High School Musical' (2006), teenagers are represented as passionate towards their singing which is a positive representation of teenagers. This relates to the semiotics theory as different interpretations are being created in different films which has resulted to the audience having different views of teenagers. This relates to Lewis who believes that "teen films are addressing major issues like alienation, delinquency, rebellion, sex and gender" [6]. This connotes that different types of ten films are looking at different issues which results to many different interpretations of teenagers from the audience.

During the twentieth century in America, social policies and institutions began to treat those under 20 as "both distinct and separate from adults“ [7]. This connotes that over time the stereotypes of teenagers has changed in the media as in the 20th century, this representation of teenagers begun as they were stereotyped negatively which resulted to a moral panic. This representation is shown in films such as ’17 Again’ where teenagers are causing trouble within school by getting in to fights and more interested in ‘popularity’ and girls which is shown through the character Mike (Zac Efron) who has little interest in education. "In parallel fashion, Hollywood has always made films about young people (Considine, 1981) . They have also made films designed or presumed to cater for what it called 'the juve trade' - juvenile spectators” [8]. This was the case while comparing this contemporary text to a historical text, there was a difference in the stereotypes of teenagers from how it is now which was shown as the jocks in the film is continuously threatening to kill and stab their enemies whereas no violence as such takes place. These type of films have created a representation in parents minds too that every middle school student is “gossip ridden, hormone-raging and naive” [9] which shows the way in which parents are easily willing to “pin these stereotypes to their children, and then judge them accordingly” [10]. This connotes that even though the representation has changed of teenagers over time to an even more negative representation which shows that it is as if Hollywood is producing films on teenagers for fashion as if teenagers are a trend. This relates to the social factors as it connotes that the emphasise of these Hollywood films are resulting to teenagers becoming a social topic with the public and youth groups continuously being targeted as if they do not fit in to society which shows that teenagers representation has changed in the media negatively from a historical view. This has then resulted to an increase in the moral panic and a increase in the way that teenagers are being represented in Hollywood movies.

In addition, Martin Barker (1998) describes the concept of stereotypes as a “useless tool for investigating texts for misrepresenting the ‘real world’” [11]. This connotes that the stereotypes of teenagers are misrepresenting the ‘real world’ and allowing teenagers to be stereotyped in this negative way. This is shown in the film ‘Step up 2: The Streets’ (2008) as teenagers are being misrepresented due to teenagers taking part in street dance and dancing illegally. This connotes that this Hollywood film has portrayed teenagers in a negative way just due to teenagers wanting to fulfil their passion of dancing and as the film’s title mentions “the streets” it connotes that teenagers are trouble makers and hang around in the streets causing the audience to believe this representation of teenagers. Furthermore, is this negative representation of teenagers being created in to a moral panic due to the way that the media is portraying teenagers? The media is known to have “the power through selection and reinforcement to give us very influential portrayals of a whole range of groups” [12]. This connotes that due to the media and its texts, the audience is then being injected ideas in to their minds according to the hypodermic needle theory which has resulted to a moral panic on teenagers. This is also shown as the media organise power through stereotypical representations that “re inscribe social rules and roles” [13] which shows that the media plays a part in the view of teenagers. This has resulted to the way that teenagers are shown in the media and resulting to a moral panic then.

In a historical perspective, the representation of teenagers has changed over the years in a range of ways in Hollywood productions. Marshal Mcluhan he dubbed the media that they “rarely see by accident and never without interest” [14] which shows that the representation of teenagers may have been created continuously by the media due to them wanting to gain an audience for their benefit which has resulted to the historical change in the stereotypes of teenagers in Hollywood productions. This change has been shown as in the Hollywood film ‘Rebel without a Cause’ (1955); teenagers were not represented as negatively as they are now. This is shown as in ‘Rebel without a Cause’; Jim is continuously trying to prove himself to his friends by switchblade knife fights and dangerous driving. This connotes that in this film there is violence present but it is not as much as now as any murder scenes are shown or abuse towards peers whereas it is in contemporary films. Also, the basic stereotypes of teenagers within the 90’s were that teenagers are disrespectful towards teachers and immature whereas now teenagers have become a threat in the media. Barry (1999) believes that ‘Rebel without a Cause’ was “deeply alarming in their portrayal of teenagers willing to defy school teachers” [15]. This connotes that within the 90’s teenagers were not represented as negatively as they are now as teenagers were represented as disrespectful towards teenagers but now teenagers have been stereotyped in the media as a violent group of people.

Another historical media text that can raise awareness on the difference of the representation of teenagers is the Hollywood media text ‘The Breakfast Club’ (1985). Tessa Parking (1997) believed that “we tend to make assumptions about stereotypes which can themselves be misleading” [16]. This could be the case when looking at ‘The Breakfast Club’ as this text looks at teenagers negatively whereas it is not largely negative. For example, the teenagers in the film are in a detention throughout the film in which they give death threats to each other and get in to fights a few times. This connotes that it is a negative representation of teenagers as they are in detention and are getting in to fights whereas the major different between this and contemporary texts is that in this historical text teenagers are not literally fighting and killing each other as there is only threats taking place. This shows that there is a large difference in the representations of teenagers in the historical Hollywood texts than the contemporary Hollywood historical texts. This is different to the representation of teenagers now as teenagers are now committing murders and getting involved in a large amount of violence. This historical text can also be evidence to show that adults have made “protecting and controlling the young as an obsession” [17]. This connotes that this text shows the way in which teenagers are being controlled by both teachers and their parents which may have been the cause of teenager’s delinquency behaviour.

In addition, the media holds a vital part in the representation of teenagers who can also be the reason for this representation. This is shown as the media is also known to find teenagers as “easy targets and plenty of materials for sensational journalism” [18]. This connotes that the media may be creating this negative representation of teenagers which has then resulted to Hollywood films also reinforcing this representation. Also, this shows that the media is in a way ‘using’ teenagers in order to gain larger audience who will be attracted to read an issue which will create a moral panic. “Youth has always provided the audience with ample opportunities for negative representations of young people” [19]. This connotes that the media is using this opportunity wisely and creating a negative representation of teenagers which will attract more customers and benefit the media. This shows that this relates to surveillance according to the Uses and Gratifications theory as the audience will be interested to know what is going on in the media. This will mean that the audience will continuously hear about teenagers which will result to the audience believing this too which will result in teenagers being represented negatively in the media which will be reinforced in Hollywood texts. Teenagers have also become a “source of titillation for the older viewer” [20] due to teenagers becoming an amusement topic for adults which is reinforced by the way in which teenagers are presented in Hollywood productions.

Overall by looking at the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions from a historical and contemporary view, it is clear that the representation of teenagers has changed largely. This is shown as Hollywood productions before in a historical view used to represent teenagers as negative but they did not get involved in large amounts of violence whereas now Hollywood productions include teenagers getting pregnant, knife crime, abuse and many more. Also, Hollywood is known to create “unrealistic expectation for teenagers” [21] which connotes that teenagers are continuously being targeted by major institutions such as Hollywood. As a result, teenagers in the media and Hollywood productions are being stereotyped negatively thus creating a moral panic as teenagers are being seen as dangerous and a threat to the media. This moral panic has been created due to teenagers being a subordinate group who is being controlled by the dominant groups which shows that over time the stereotypes of teenagers is turning worse each year. This concludes that the representation of teenagers is continuously getting negative by year as they are being stereotyped in a way in which the public is afraid of teenagers too which connotes that by looking at the representation of teenagers in a historical and contemporary view, it is clear that the representation of teenagers is not improving year by year but is turning more negative. This shows that overall teenagers are being negatively as we as teenagers are misunderstood but “we’re people, just like everyone else” [22].

[1]. www.imdb.com/title/tt0974661/quotes

[2]. Nicholos, Joe, Price, John (1998): Advanced Studies in Media, United Kingdom; Nelson. p44.

[3]. Casey, Bernadette, Casey, Neil, Calvert, Ben, French, Liam, Lewis, Justin (2002): Television Studies the Key Concepts, London; Routledge. p229.

[4]. Sardar, Ziauddin, Loon, Boring (2000): Introducing Media Studies, UK; Totem Books. p77.

[5]. Doherty, T (1988): Teenagers and Teenpics: The Suvenlization of American movies in the 1950s, Boston; Unwinhyman. p124

[6]. Blandford, Steve (2001): The Film Studies Dictionary, London; Arnold. p238.

[7]. Neale, Steve (2000): Genre and Hollywood, London; Routledge. p119.

[8]. Cook, Pam, Bernink, Mieke Eds (1999): The Cinema Book 2nd Edition, London; BFI. p218.

[9]. www.teen-culture.suite101.com/article.cfm/teen_stereotypes

[10]. http://www.helium.com/items/1438882-teenagers

[11]. O’Sullivian, Tim, Dutton, Brian, Rayner, Phillip (1994): Studying the Media Second Edition, Great Britain; Arnold. p86.

[12]. www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/repsyouth.html

[13]. Curran, James, Gurevitah, Micheal eds (2005): Mass Media and Society, London, Hodder Education. p341

[14]. Bennett, Peter, Slater, Jerry, Wall, Petter (2006): A2 Media Studies: The Essential Introduction, Abingdon Oxon; Routledge. p77.

[15]. Carter, Cynthia, Weaver, C.Kay (2003): Violence and the Media, Buckingham; Open University Press. p52.

[16]. Bennett, Peter, Slater, Jerry, Wall, Peter (2006): A2 Media Studies: The Essential Introduction, Oxon; Routledge. p81.

[17]. Provert, David, Graham, Andrew (2008): Advanced Media Studies, Oxfordshire; Phillip Allan. p135.

[18]. Ibid. p135

[19]. Brignell, Jonathan (2004): An Introduction to Television Studies, London; Routledge. p240.
[20]. Brignell, Jonathan (2004): An Introduction to Television Studies, London; Routledge. p240
[21]. www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/05/18/hollywood_s_obsession_with_the_perfect_p
[22]. http://www.momaroo.com/696329679/a-teenager-speaking-out-against-teenage-stereotypes/

Task 2 - Additional Reading. . .

2010-01-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

1. Cook, Pam, Bernink, Mieke eds (1999): The Cinema Book 2nd Edition, London; BFI
Page 218

"In parallel fashion, Hollywood has always made films about young people (Considine, 1981). They have also made films designed or presumed to cater for what it called 'the juve trade' - juvenile spectators."

This quote links to my critical investigation as it is a quote that shows that making films based on teenagers was like "fashion" to Hollywood. This links to my critical investigation as it is based on teenagers and its shows how Hollywood created films that made teenagers look juvennile.

2. Casey, Bernadette, Casey, Neil, Calvert, Ben, French, Liam, Lewis, Justin (2002): Television Studies The Key Concepts, London; Routledge
Page 62

"The term 'counter culture' usually means according to Dick Hebdige (1979), a mix of 'alternative' middle-class youth cultures in which more explicit political and ideological resistance to the dominant culture is expressed."

This quote links to my critical investigation as it is linked to teenagers. It shows that teenagers are not a dominant group and are being controlled over the dominant groups. This shows that youth cultures are usually classified as counter culture.

3. Bennett, Peter, Slater, Jerry, Wall, Peter (2006): A2 Media Studies: The Essential Introduction, Oxon; Routledge
Page 81

"In an influential essay on stereotypes, Tessa Parking (1997) made the point that we tend to make assumptions about stereotypes which can in themselves be misleading."

This quote is useful for my critical investigation as it is on the stereotypes of teenagers and explains how Tessa Parking believes that stereotypes can be misleading. This will be useful for my critical investigation as I can look at how teenagers are being represented in Hollywood productions and if it I'm misleading or not.

4. Probert, David, Graham, Andrew (2008): Advanced Media Studies, Oxfordshire; Philip Allan
Page 135

"Protecting and controlling the young has always been a obsession of adults society, and the media found easy targets and plenty of materials for sensational journalism concerning the growth of the 'sex, drugs and rock and roll' culture and the many stars and celebrities it produced."

This links to my critical investigation as it shows that young people are continuously being controlled by adults. This connotes that the way in which teenagers are being represented is based on how adults portray them. This will be useful for my critical investigation as I will be able to explore if the representations of teenagers in Hollywood productions is due to adults.

5. Casey, Bernadette, Casey, Neil, Calvert, Ben, French, Liam, Lewis, Justin (2002): Television Studies The Key Concepts, London; Routledge
Page 229

"Today it is widely recognised that stereotypes are inaccurate, simplistic generalisations about a group of individuals that may lead to particular perceptions of the group by others."

This quote will be useful for my critical investigation as it shows that stereotypes are increasingly being seen as inaccurate which means that there may be a chance that the representations that are being created of teenagers may also be this. This connotes that this quote will be able to assist me in my critical investigation as I can see if the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions is as this quote says.

6. Brignell, Jonathan (2004): An Introduction to Television Studies, London; Routledge
Page 240

"The eroticised youthful body has become a commodity for the attraction of youth audiences and also a source of titillation for the older viewer."

This quote links to my critical investigation as it shows that youths have become a attraction for the audience to see. This connotes that the audience prefer to watch teenagers as it may be because they find it interesting or get to learn more about teenagers. This shows that this will refer to my critical investigation as I will be able to look at if this is the case with my critical investigation.

7. Rayner, Philip, Wall, Peter, Kruger, Stepher (2001): AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction, London; Routledge
Page 68

"Youth has tended over the later half of the twentieth century to suffer from a rather negative representation in the media. Youth has always provided the media with ample opportunities for negative representation of young people."

This quote links to my critical investigation as it shows that teenagers are gaining a lot of negative press in the media which shows that they are continuously being referred to in a negative way. This connotes that this will relate to my critical investigation as I would need to see whether the news of teenagers is being reflected in Hollywood productions.

8. Doherty, T (1988): Teenagers and Teenpics: The Suvenlization of American movies in the 1950s, Boston; Unwinhyman
Page 124

"These films can be defined as teen pics because they all focus on teenage characters. However, issues of definition are complicated by the fact that since the early 1970s, Hollywood has been decisively 'juvenalized' (Doherty 1988)."

This quote is related to my critical investigation as it shows that Hollywood has a habit of representing teenagers in this way. This connotes that this will help me in my critical investigation as I will be able to see whether this representation is occurring in the Hollywood texts that I will be looking at.

9. Neale, Steve (2000): Genre and Hollywood, London; Routledge.
Page 119

"During the course of the twentieth century in America and elsewhere in the industrialized west, a series of social policies, practices and institutions have increasingly begun to treat those under 20 as both distinct and separate from adults, two key terms have emerged in America to mark it: 'adolescence' (term used by psychologist G.Stanley Hall in 1904) and 'teenager' (a term first used in the popular press in the 1920's)."

This quote will link to my critical investigation as it is showing the way in which America is beginning to view teenagers which is in a negative way as they are being treated as if they are not equal. This connotes that because of this representation, it may be why that in Hollywood productions that teenagers are being represented negatively and shown as a threat to the public.
10. Sardar, Ziauddin, Loon, Borin (2000): Introducing Media Studies, UK; Totem Books.
Page 77

"Stan Cohen argued that the media labelled youth culture in a stereotyped and negative way, thus creating "folk devils" and were reported in a way to create a moral panic."

This will link to my critical investigation as it shows that Stan Cohen also believes that the way in which teenagers have been stereotyped has resulted in them be labelled as "folk devils" which has meant that they gained a negative image in the media. This connotes that the public now find teenagers a threat and believe that they are a group that will cause trouble in the society.

Task 6 - Introduction & First Paragraph . . .

2010-01-06T02:11:00.000-08:00

An investigation into the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions and how this has changed over the years.

The representation of teenagers has continously known to change over the years within the media. Teenagers have been represented from positively to negatively which has created a moral panic in the media. This essay will be exploring the representation of teenagers in Hollwood productions through the three platforms broadcast, emedia and print. This will allow me to look at the different representations that are being created of teenagers in Hollywood productions as the contemporary texts that will be useful in my investigation are texts such as '17 Again' (2009) compared to other Hollywood texts. This shows that this essay will focus upon looking at the representation of teenagers in depth in Hollywood productions and see whether this stereotype is being reinforced or challenged continously. Murphy believes that ideas become stereotypes that are "unrealistic" and "unsatisfactory" [1] which could be the case when looking at teenagers that will be explored in this essay.

"Today it is widely recognised that stereotypes are inaccurate, simplistic generalisations about a group of individuals that may lead to particular perceptions of the group by others" [2]. Is this the case with teenagers? Youths have continously been represented as delinquent, immature and illmannered within movies due to the personality that has been created. This representation is shown through films such as '17 Again' where teenagers are getting in to fights as the jocks and nerds are always getting in to fights and in the film 'Superbad' (2007) where the boys are obsessed over the girls. This shows that the stereotypes of teenagers are being reinforced in these films and Hollywood institutions are not challenging them but is doing what the media is concerned about. However, in the film 'High School Musical' (2006), teenagers are represented as passionate towards their singing which is a positive representation of teenagers. This relates to the semiotics theory as different interpretations are being created in different films which has resulted to the audience having different views of teenagers. This relates to Lewis who believes that "teen films are addressing major issues like alienation, delinquency, rebellion, sex and gender, consumption and nostalgia" [3]. This connotes that different types of ten films are looking at different issues which results to many different interpretations of teenagers from the audience.

“During the course of the twentieth century in America and elsewhere in the industrialized west, a series of social policies, practices and institutions have increasingly begun to treat those under 20 as both distinct and separate from adults, two key terms have emerged in America to mark it: ‘adolescence’ (term used by psychologist G.Stanley Hall in 1904) and ‘teenager’ (a term first used in the popular press in the 1920’s).” [4]. This connotes that over time the stereotypes of teenagers has changed in the media as in the 20th century, this representation of teenagers begun as they were stereotyped negatively which resulted to a moral panic. This representation is shown in films such as ’17 Again’ where teenagers are causing trouble within school by getting in to fights and more interested in ‘popularity’ and girls which is shown through the character Mike (Zac Efron) who has little interest in education. "In parallel fashion, Hollywood has always made films about young people (Considine, 1981). They have also made films designed or presumed to cater for what it called 'the juve trade' - juvenile spectators." [5]. This was the case while comparing this contemporary text to a historical text, there was a difference in the stereotypes of teenagers from how it is now which was shown as Andrew, the jock in the film is continuously threatening to kill and stab Bender, the rebel in the film whereas no violence as such takes place. This connotes that even though the representation has changed of teenagers over time to an even more negative representation which shows that it is as if Hollywood is producing films on teenagers for fashion as if teenagers are a trend. This relates to the social factors as it connotes that the emphasise of these Hollywood films are resulting to teenagers becoming a social topic with the public and youth groups continuously being targeted as if they do not fit in to society which shows that teenagers representation has changed in the media negatively from a historical view.

[1]. Nicholos, Joe, Price, John (1998): Advanced Studies in Media, United Kingdom; Nelson. Page 44.
[2]. Casey, Bernadette, Casey, Neil, Calvert, Ben, French, Liam, Lewis, Justin (2002): Television Studies The Key Concepts, London; Routledge. Page 229.
[3]. Blandford, Steve (2001): The Film Studies Dictionary, London; Arnold. Page 238.
[4] Neale, Steve (2000): Genre and Hollywood, London; Routledge. Page 119.
[5] Cook, Pam, Bernink, Mieke eds (1999): The Cinema Book 2nd Edition, London; BFI. Page 218.

Task 5 - Essay Plan . . .

2010-01-05T14:06:00.000-08:00

Para 1: Introduction

In this paragraph, I will introduce what my critical investigation is and explain that I will be coming to a conclusion to see how the representation of teenagers has changed over time and are teenagers being represented in a positive way or negative way. I will be also mentioning in this paragraph that I will be looking at this on the basis of a historical text and a recent text which will allow me to see the difference of the way in which teen genre films are being shown. (G, R, H)

Para 2: What are the stereotypes of teenagers?

In this paragraph, I will be explaining the basic representations that has begun of teenagers and how this is being influenced by different institutions in Hollywood as I will be able to see the difference is how institutions are portraying teenagers for example, are the reinforcing stereotypes or challenging them. In this paragraph, I will also mention the texts that I will be looking at that have represented teenagers which will be contemporary texts and this will realte to the semiotics theory as what connotations are being created of teenagers. For example, 17 Again, Super Bad and High School Musical. I will explain them briefly to show what representations are being created. In this paragraph, I can also fit in the quote "Lewis (1992) sees the teen film as addressing major issues like alienation, delinquency, rebellion, sex and gender, consumption and nostalgia". (G, R, I)

Para 3: How has the representation of teenagers changed over time?

In this paragraph, I will be comparing my historical and current text which will mean that I can look at how the representation of teenagers has changed in Hollywood over time. This will make it more clear as to what changes have occured over time and how the clothing, attitude of teenagers have changed over the time and the use of propps. I will also look at SHEP in this paragraph and see what is changing and happening. This will result to me being able to see is there a positive change or a negative change. This will link to the news and different realities issue as the way in which teenagers are being represented in films, is it reflecting the news view of teenagers? and it will also relate to the violence in the media issue as is there more violence in current films now. Also, if the change is negative, I will be able to fit in this quote "During the course of the twentieth century in America and elsewhere in the industrialized west, a series of social policies, practices and institutions have increasingly begun to treat those under 20 as both distinct and separate from adults, two key terms have emerged in America to mark it: 'adolescence' (term used by psychologist G.Stanley Hall in 1904) and 'teenager' (a term first used in the popular press in the 1920's)." (M, R A, S ,H, E, P)

Para 4: Is this representation resulting to moral panics and all Hollywood productions looking at teenagers in this way?

In this paragraph, I will be looking at whether this representation of teenagers is causing a moral panic and resulting to all Hollywood institutions representing teenagers in this way. This will link to the marxism and hegemony theory as it looks at the way in which the representations can construct the view of the audience. I will need to look at how teenagers are typically being represented in Hollywood films and how this is having a impact on the audience. This will link to the quote "Stan Cohen argued that the media labelled youth culture in a stereotyped and negative way, thus creating "folk devils" and were reported in a way to create a moral panic." (R, A)

Para 5: Conclusion

In my last paragraph I will be coming to a conclusion and looking at how teenagers have been represented in Hollywood films and how it has changed over time. I will be concluding whether it is a negative representation or positive that has changed over time and what are the social factors concerned with this. This will allow me to come to a decision of the representation of teenagers based on whether it has changed in a good way or not. "Martin Barker (1998) goes further, to the extent of dismissing the concept of the stereotype as a 'useless tool for investigating texts'. Its first objection is that stereotypes are condemned both for misrepresenting the 'real world'." I can fit in this quote in this paragraph to back up what I am saying in my conclusion. (R,S, H)

Task 1 - Textual Analysis. . .

2010-01-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhJrN3B6J1M

I will be writing about the clip shown above which is a clip from the movie 17 Again. This is a movie that looks at teenagers which will be a film that will allow me to look at how teenagers are being represented in Hollywood movies.

At the beginning of the scene, the audience is shown Zac Efron and his friend (Alex) and they are shown in the canteen. This creates the atmosphere that it is based on typical teenagers at school having their lunch. There is a long shot at the beginning of the scene which shows Zac Efron and Alex from a distance. The purpose of this long shot is so that the audience can see the environment in which the two characters are as they are in the school canteen which is full of teenagers. The scene begins of with allowing the audience to be familiar with the two characters personality as the teenagers begin talking about their parents knowing each other. This then follows on to Zac Efron saying to Alex "we should look after each other" which connotes that teenagers need support within school and do not prefer to be alone as they would prefer someone to be there for them. This is the first stereotype that is created of teenagers within the scene that shows how teenagers are. Alex then responds by saying "next time you can get there before they tape me to the toilet". This connotes that Alex is being bullied within school and instantly shows his position in the film which is a "geek". This shows that teenagers in Hollywood productions are being split up in to the "popular" group and the "unpopular" group.

While Alex and Zac Efron are having lunch, they are shown in a medium shot which allows the audience to see what a typical teenage lunch is like. Zac and Efron begin to talk about a teenage girl who is called Nicole. When Alex refers to her as "the head cheerleader", he shows the audience clearly that the head cheerleader cannot be seen as a "geek" like him. This shows that within Hollywood films, teenagers are being separated in to groups of what then characterises them for the whole time that they are in school. This results to bullying and not being popular in school. This relates to the issue and debate of representation and stereotyping as it shows that teenagers are being in a way discriminated against due to their position within school. It also connotes that Hollywood productions are stereotyping teenagers as having a set of groups of teenagers which consist of jocks, cheerleaders, geeks and the popular teenagers. This is usual in Hollywood films as Alex is dreaming over Nicole the head cheerleader when he knows that he stands no chance of being recognised by her.

This looks at the audience theory and shows that this specific scene is attracting the audience as they can then relate to what is happening as this is common between teenagers. This also means that the people that may watch this film that are not teenagers would then be injected ideas about how teenagers are viewed which will relate to the Hypodermic Needle theory. This shows that due to the way in which teenagers are being represented in Hollywood movies, it has resulted in teenagers being seen as a group of people that are in "certain" groups. For example, the "geeks" may result in being stereotyped as hardworking by the audience whereas the "jocks" may be stereotyped as negative and always causing problems. This connotes that by the different roles in Hollywood films, it has taken an impact in the way that the public view teenagers.

As the scene progresses, the "jocks" are shown to the audience from a long shot to a medium shot as it shows them walking in as if they own the place. This then stereotypes them as trouble makers as Stan the "lead" jock is shown in the middle of the group and grabs a sandwich out of someones hand and gets away with it. This then results to a pattern in Hollywood films as the jocks are mainly represented negatively as causing problems and assuming that they are better than everyone else in the film. Zac Efron then gets in to a fight with Stan for just making eye contact and Alex also warns him and says "don't make eye contact with him". This gives the impression to viewers that jocks are so frightening that they should do what they want and everyone else should sit back. This results to a further stereotype of teenagers being represented negatively in particular due to jocks. This represents them as causing trouble and being too arrogant and think too much of themselves which is a representation that is commonly created through Hollywood productions.

Overall, this shows that by looking at this clip it shows a range of ways that teenagers are being represented in Hollywood productions as they are being represented in many different groups such as the geeks, the jocks, the popular teenagers, the unpopular teenagers and etc. This has resulted to this typical representation of teenagers occurring in Hollywood productions which is shown in the clip of 17 Again as in a four minute clip, all these representations of teenagers are being shown. This shows that teenagers are being represented in a slight negative way in Hollywood productions as they are firstly divided in to different groups and they are then seen to be getting in to fights and causing trouble.

Task 3 - Historical Text Analysis & Research . . .

2010-01-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Who would have thought that the John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club would still be Hollywood’s best attempt at understanding and then destroying stereotypes? Most of Hollywood’s forays into this realm are nauseatingly patronizing and unrealistic. However, a teen movie out of the alleged “Decade of Greed” successfully shows us what it is like to be different and, at the same time, how we are the same.

The Breakfast Club is a collection of high school students who attend a Saturday detention for each of their indiscretions. The movie introduces us to the characters as the stereotypes that each student considers the other: the Nerd (Hall), the Beauty (Ringwald), the Jock (Estevez), the Rebel (Nelson), and the recluse (Sheedy). Also, we are introduced to another stereotype; the mean overbearing teacher. Paul Gleason (the KING of all character actors) is Mr. Vernon, the teacher in charge of Saturday detention.

While in detention, Mr. Vernon gives them a simple assignment. They must write an essay about “who you think you are.” Each person has a good idea of what the other is. Yet, through several discussions and arguments, they learn that they have more similarities than at first sight. The Rebel, John Bender, initially focuses his anger at Andrew the Jock and Claire the Beauty. His outward hatred towards their “good life” masks his hurt about his own life. In reality, Claire just wishes her parents gave a damn about her, and Andrew wishes he had the guts to stand up to his overbearing father. All three seem to think Brian the Nerd is the “perfect son” and doesn’t have the same problems. My only character complaint is that Allison the Recluse is not developed nearly as well as the other cast members. Her problems are more self-created in order try to get attention but at the same time, keep people away.

Each has his or her own problems and as insignificant as they might appear, to a teenager, they are everything. This is what this movie captures the best. If anything, the teenage years are a time of self-consciousness and angst. When we look back at it, it seems a little ridiculous. Yet, at that point in our lives, it is important. Parents don’t get it and teachers don’t get it.

The movie does an outstanding job of deconstructing the stereotypes of the kids. However, The Breakfast Club misses a chance to do the same with stereotypes about adults. Mr. Vernon is almost comical in how mean-spirited he is. The typical mean teacher who is more put off by kids than anything. During a scene with Mr. Vernon and the custodian, Carl (Kapelos), Hughes begins to get inside the character of the teacher. When he bemoans that the students have changed, Carl tells him “No, you’ve changed”. Hughes stopped there but he could have introduced humanity into Mr. Vernon several times by having him at least show a facial expression of regret for his actions. Actually, there is one brief scene. After a verbal tête-à-tête with Bender early in the movie, you see Mr. Vernon pause just for a second as he leaves the detention hall. Yet, the movie does not expound on this. I suspect that Hughes planned to develop this subplot but dropped it when he realized his target audience had zero interest in a non-stereotypical teacher.

Some critique the ending of the movie for being a little too contrived. Those people weren’t paying attention during the middle of the film. In a normal Hollywood movie, they would have all become best buddies. This movie, on the other hand, admits that come Monday, they probably won’t be friends. The biggest truth about high school is missed here. Most kids, while saying they want to be seen as more than a stereotype, will never take that risk. Come Monday, they will each return to their comfort zone rather than risk the ridicule of their “friends”. So while the ending leaves us with the idea that the Jock hooks up with the Recluse, the Rebel has found his Princess, and the Nerd, er…might have a couple of friends, we could also leave with the opposite idea. Come Monday, the Jock and the Beauty might be back with their kind, the Rebel might go back to hating everybody, and the Nerd and Recluse might still be ignored in the hallway. Yet, Hughes leaves that to us. How you feel about the ending might be due to which stereotype you most represent yourself with.
(Source: http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/The-Breakfast-Club-440.html)

This is a useful text for me to look at as it is a 1985 film based on teenagers which shows a range of similarities and differences to how teenagers are portrayed now. This is shown as in the film teenagers are not represented as negatively as they are now. For example, there is still the typical prom which teenagers look forward to, the school princess, teenagers getting in to trouble, the school criminal which shows that the typical stereotypes of teenagers are still being used of teenagers in film. There are many similarities and differences in this teenage film based on what teenage films are like now...

The similarities of The Breakfast Club compared to films now:

* Teenage films are still showing teenagers getting in to trouble. For example, teenagers in the film The Breakfast Club are in detention for doing something wrong which is still the case in films now as in teenage films, teenagers are always being portrayed as getting in to trouble and misbehaving which results in to them getting detention.

* There is usually a jock who is shown in teenage films. This is shown through the character Andrew in the film who is a jock. This is also the case in films now as there are teenagers films where there are jocks. For example, in the film SuperBad. These are the people who are usually popular within school which is common in films and this is shown through Andrew.

* Teenage films also have a criminals in the film that are always causing trouble and getting in to fights. This is shown in The Breakfast Club through the character Bender who is stereotyped as a "rebel". For example, when he begins to urinate during detention and continuously arguing with the jock Emillio. This is shown when Bender is continuously picking on Andrew and harassing him about the "princess" of high school who is Claire.

Differences of The Breakfast Club compare to films now . . .

* The difference is that in The Breakfast Club, Andrew the jock is continuously threatening to kill and stab Bender but in reality nothing violent happens between them. This is different from teenage films now as teenage films now show clear violent scenes between teenagers. For example, scenes now show stabbing and violent fighting between teens whereas in The Breakfast Club this is not shown. This connotes that this is a large difference between films then and now as teenage films have become more violent. This shows that genre and society has changed as it has become more clear on what is being shown rather than films having a limit which has now gone as teenage films are more violent.

* Another difference of The Breakfast Club compared to films now is the clothing of teenagers. This is shown as in The Breakfast Club, teenagers are dresses appropriately that the audience is not made aware completely who the rebel is whereas now it is completely clear to the audience. This is shown as teenagers now in films where hoodies and dark colours which stereotypes them as violent and aggressive. However, in this film teenagers are not dressed in dark colours and are not wearing hoodies which shows that this is another difference as the characters personality is not made clear to the audience but it is up to them to work out who the rebel is. This shows that genre has changed over time as the clothing of teenagers has also changed.

Overall, this shows that the genre of films has changed over time as before there used to be less crime shown and aggressiveness whereas there is more now. This is shown as in The Breakfast Club, teenagers do not be aggressive to each other whereas now in films gun scenes are shown and stabbing and violently beating each other up. This connotes that the way in which teenagers have been represented has changed over time due to teenagers being portrayed more violently in films such as knife crime and etc.

Task 4 - Additional Web Search . . .

2009-12-27T08:31:00.000-08:00

1. www.bbc.co.uk/films/2008/03/17/step_up_2_the_streets_2008_review.shtml

"Teenies wanting amazing moves, tight abs all round and cheesy romance will lap this up."

The website above links to my critical investigation as it is a review on Step Up 2 which is a film based on teenagers and is a Hollywood film. This will relate to my critical investigation as I will be able to look at Step Up 2 and see the way in which teenagers are being represented. This shows that I will be able to see how teenagers are being represented in different Hollywood films and see how this review mentions teenagers in the film.

2. http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/movies/12prom.html

"Ms. Curtis (who nowadays seems to prefer tasteful public disrobing to shrieking) would probably be insulted to learn from the press notes of this new film that it has been reimagined for a “more sophisticated audience.” (Because that’s just what you hope for in a slasher-movie audience: sophistication.)"

This website relates to my critical investigation as it has some information on the film Prom Night which is a Hollywood film. This will mean that for my critical investigation, I can also look at this film and see how teenagers are being stereotyped. The article mentions that the "typical" teenage prom is used in the film which shows that this is a common stereotype of teenagers as the one thing they really look forward to in high school if prom. This will allow me to explore more in to the different representations of teenagers in Hollywood productions.

3. www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/repsyouth.html

"The fact is that the media have the power through selection and reinforcement to give us very influential portrayals of a whole range of groups, situations and ideas. We make sense of these representations in different ways according to the values and assumptions we carry around in our own heads. So representation is not just about the way the world is presented to us but also about how we engage with media texts in order to interpret and assimilate such portrayals."

This website above related to my critical investigation as it explains simply the representations of teenagers in Hollywood films. For example, it mentions how female teenagers are being represented in films which mentions that the representation of female teenagers is created through girls magazines. This website also looks at different theorists view on the representation of teenagers which will be useful for my critical investigation as I will be able to look at these theorists more and refer to them.

4. http://teen-culture.suite101.com/article.cfm/teen_stereotypes

"A common misconception for parents is that every middle school kid of this generation is conceited, gossip-ridden, hormone-raging and naive. This is a stereotype. The irony of labeling children with stereotypes is not just hypocritical, but a huge overgeneralization. In middle schools and high schools today, there are ‘groups’ of these stereotypes."

This website relates to my critical investigation as it mentions the different stereotypes of teenagers which are commonly used. For example, this website looks at the representation of Emo's, Prep and Wannabe which are the common stereotypes that have been referred to teenagers. This shows that when looking in to my critical investigation, I will be able to look at how teenagers are being represented commonly and how this is affecting the way that they are being represented in films.

5. children predict more negative behaviours later on,' said Christy Buchanan, professor of psychology."

This website shows the different representations of teenagers and how they may have been created. The website states that parents are to some extent responsible for the way in which their children begin to behave due to the expectations that parents have of their teenager children. This shows that this will relate to my critical investigation as it shows the way in which teenagers are being represented and why this stereotypes are created. This means that I am able to gain a better understanding of the representations of teenagers and understand why they are being created.

7. http://www.momaroo.com/696329679/a-teenager-speaking-out-against-teenage-stereotypes/

"First of all, I would like to make it perfectly clear that there are definitely plenty of us that are bad people, that are underachievers, that are disrespectful, and that overstep their boundaries. I'm not the type to just say, "Oh, we're so misunderstood! You need to feel bad for us! We need to be treated just like you, just like adults!" But I do want to make it clear that we're people, just like everyone else."

This website related to my critical investigation as it is a article which is based on a teenagers view of the representation of teenagers. This shows that by looking at this website, I can see what teenagers believe of the way in which they are being represented. This website mentions that some teenagers are the way in which they have been stereotyped but not all teenagers are like that which makes it wrong for all teenagers to be represented negatively. This will be useful for my critical investigation as it is a teenagers view on the stereotypes of teenagers.

8. http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/05/18/hollywood_s_obsession_with_the_perfect_p
"But for those that do, be aware of how Hollywood creates unrealistic expectations for teenagers that want to make prom infamous instead of simply enjoyable."

The website above relates to my critical investigation as it looks at the typical representations that are used of teenagers in Hollywood films. This website mentions that Hollywood productions are fond of assuming that prom is a time that teenagers want to lose their virginity which shows that Hollywood is using unrealistic stereotypes of teenagers in Hollywood productions. This shows that this will link to my critical investigation as I am able to look at the different representations that are being created in Hollywood of teenagers.

9. http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/07/01/in_secret_life_stereotypical_teenagers_talk_about_sex/

"Teen pregnancy has been so glamorized, analyzed, and magnified in pop culture that it was bound to become the subject of a television series."

The website above relates to my critical investigation as it is based on the programme "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" which is broadcasted on the channel ABC. This will relate to my critical investigation as it shows the typical ways that teenagers are being represented in that programme and how it reinforces the stereotypes of teenagers. In this programme, there is a constant time where teenagers talk about sex and there is teenage pregnancy in there too. This shows that this will relate to my critical investigation as it it shows how teenagers are being represented in Hollywood programmes too.

10. http://www.helium.com/items/1438882-teenagers

"This prejudice stems from the narrow, stereotypical view that the common media attaches to teenagers. It has gotten to the point that parents are willing to pin these stereotypes to their children, and then judge them accordingly."

The website above is related to my critical investigation as it looks at the different representations of teenagers and shows that stereotypes sell which is why Hollywood productions are enforcing them in order to sell their films. This article mentions that the way in which teenagers are being represented has resulted in parents believing that their teenagers are like this too which shows that because of the negative representation of teenagers, they are being viewed negatively by the media and their family.

11. http://www.frankwbaker.com/teenmedia.htm

"Good ol' Webster defines youth as follows: Youth (yooth): 1. the state or quality of being young, esp. of being vigorous and lively, or immature, impetuous, etc. 2. the period of life coming between childhood and maturity; adolescence 3. An early stage of growth or existence."

This website links to my critical invstigation as it looks at how teenagers are being represented in the media. This is shown as the website looks at different theorists and looks at examples of media texts that show how teenagers are being represented. For example, the article looks at the Scary Movie.

12. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/toolkit/stereotypes/youth_stereotypes_news.cfm

"This impression has been created largely through media coverage of alarming stories about high school shootings, property crimes, and incidents involving so-called youth gangs."

This website will be useful for my critical investigation as it looks at the representation of teenagers in the media and why they have been created. This website states that representations of teenagers have been created due to the media which shows that I will be able to see different ways in which representation of teenagers are being created.

Bibliography - Internet Sites

2009-12-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

1. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hoodies-louts-scum-how-media-demonises-teenagers-1643964.html

This website shows the way in which teenagers are represented in the media and shows that teenagers are being represented negatively continously. This is shown through them being shown in a phase of 'bad light' and negatively shown as they are getting involved in crime and violence. This will link to my critical investigation as the way in which teenagers are being represented in the media reflects the way in which institutions are producing films on teenagers as they are beginning to be represented as negatively in the media and films.

2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/20702360/Teen-Representation-in-US-films-Edel

This website shows the different representationsof teenagers in the media especially in Hollywood productions. The website shows that teenagers in Hollywood movies are being represented as thugs, trouble makers and many more. This website will link to my critical investigation as it shows the way in which Hollywood productions are representing teenagers. For example, this website states that Hollywood films could deliberatelycreate a false representaiton on teenagers for their own benefit of gaining a audience.

3. http://www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/repsyouth.html

This webstie shows the way in which teenagers are represented in Hollywood movies. This website suggests that teenagers girls are being represented as "sex obssessed" which is shown in American Pie. This connotes that there are different representations occuring in the media based on teenagers which will be linked to my critical investigation as I will be able to see the different representations that are being created on teenagers shown from Hollywood movies.

4. http://www.talkingpix.co.uk/ArticleTeenSpeak.html

This website gives a background on ty that teenagers are being represented in the media. It states that delinquency is not only in the "ghetto" but is in lone parent children too which shows that to some extent, parents are also responsible for the way that their children are behaving. This will be useful for my critical investigation as I will be able to explore all the examples that are mentioned in this website and see the different representations of teenagers.

5. http://www.creators.com/lifestylefeatures/fashion-and-entertainment/hollywood-exclusive/foxworthy-part-of-effort-to-combat-negative-stereotypes-of-teens-george-hamilton-why-failure-is-valu.html

This website looks at the stereotypes of teenagers which is why it links to my critical investigation. The website states that 71% of the press on teenagers is negative which shows that teenagers are being stereotyped in a negative way which is having an impact on the way that the public is reacting to teenagers. This will be useful for my critical investigation as it is using satistics and research that will be useful.

6. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/movies/teens_movies.cfm

This website looks at the scenes which are used in teenage films and how this may affect the way in which teenagers begin to behave. This website shows that teenage films usually have "raunchier" scenes which usually only come out on dvd. This shows that this will be related to my critical investigation as it is looking at the different stereotypes of teenagers in movies such as violent and etc.

7. http://usftherapist.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/adolescence-and-the-portrayal-of-teens-in-film-and-television/

This website shows the typical representation of teenagers in movies. This website also states that these representations, teenagers are able to relate to which encourages them even more to behave the way in which they are represented which is leading to the self fulfilling prophecy. This website looks at the physchological and emotional effect of this representation of teenagers in movies. This will link to my critical investigation as it will mean that I will be able to understand how teenagers respond to this representation.

8. http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-2835258/As-if-Hollywood-s-view.html

This website is based on the fact that many of the public are buying in to the stereotypes that are shown in Hollywood movies which is mainly of teenagers. This website shows that Hollywood movies are always representing teenagers in a negative way which many people find to be true. For example, a teenage girl being represented as "a venal, vindictive bitch" which most of the audience would begin to believe about teenagers which shows how the public is easily misled by Hollywood productions. This will link to my critcal investigation as it is based on the fact that the audience is believing into the stereotypes that are shown of teenagers in Hollywood productions.

9. http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/05/18/hollywood_s_obsession_with_the_perfect_p

This website would be useful for me as it shows that Hollywood usually have productions based on teenagers "perfect prom". This leads to the stereotype of teenagers wanting to lose their virginity on prom night and become adults which is a typical stereotype shown of teenagers in Hollywood productions. This results to the audience also believing in this sterotype. This links to my critical investigation as it is based on how teenagers are typically being represented in Hollywood productions.

10. http://www.proyouthpages.com/sugarandspice.html

This website looks at the representation of teenagers in different movies and how they are being shown to the audience. For example, this website mentions that teenagers are also being represented as evil kids which is shown in the film Menace II Society. This will be useful for my critical investigation as I will be able to explore these different media texts and see how the stereotype of teenagers is constructed.

Bibliography: Books

2009-12-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

Critical Investigation - An investigation into the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions and how this has changed over the years.

1. Blandford, Steve (2001): The Film Studies Dictionary, London; Arnold.
Page 238.

"Lewis (1992) sees the teen film as addressing major issues like alienation, delinquency, rebellion, sex and gender, consumption and nostalgia"

This quote will relate to my critical investigation as it is stating that there are films that address these issues due to them being important in the media. This connotes that the media is representing teenagers negatively but some films are being produced to address these issues and make the public see that teenagers are not all delinquent.

2. O'Sullivain, Tim, Jewkes, Yvonne eds (1997): The Media Studies Reader, London; Arnold.
Page 75

"Perkins understanding of stereotypes is that they are ideological concepts; they select personality traits, mental, sexual or personal, that have particular ideological significance."

This quote will relate to my critical investigation as it based on stereotypes. This shows that Perkins believes that stereotypes have a variety of impacts which can be personality traits, mental, sexual or personal. This relates to teenagers as they are being stereotyped from their personality due to the way they are beginning to behave which has labelled all teenagers in this way.

3. Neale, Steve (2000): Genre and Hollywood, London; Routledge.
Page 119

"During the course of the twentieth century in America and elsewhere in the industrialized west, a series of social policies, practices and institutions have increasingly begun to treat those under 20 as both distinct and separate from adults, two key terms have emerged in America to mark it: 'adolescence' (term used by psychologist G.Stanley Hall in 1904) and 'teenager' (a term first used in the popular press in the 1920's)."

This quote will link to my critical investigation as it is showing the way in which America is beginning to view teenagers which is in a negative way as they are being treated as if they are not equal. This connotes that because of this representation, it may be why that in Hollywood productions that teenagers are being represented negatively and shown as a threat to the public.

4. Bennett, Peter, Slater, Jerry Wall, Petter (2006): A2 Media Studies: The Essential Introduction, Abingdon Oxon; Routledge.
Page 77

"Marshall Mcluhan dubbed the mass media 'an extension of our senses', he meant that the sheer speed of contemporary media channels reflects the speed of our senses in face to face communication. The media rarely 'see' by accident and never without interest, although it is often known to 'cover its tracks' by allowing reportage and 'realise' to be casually confused with reality."

This quote will relate to my critical investigation as it shows that the media represent groups/places without having a care as they will just want the story to sell and interest the public. This will relate to my investigation as similarly this must be happening to teenagers as the media is creating a moral panic out of teenagers which has interested the public and made the story very popular.

5. Sardar, Ziauddin, Loon, Borin (2000): Introducing Media Studies, UK; Totem Books.
Page 77

"Stan Cohen argued that the media labelled youth culture in a stereotyped and negative way, thus creating "folk devils" and were reported in a way to create a moral panic."

This will link to my critical investigation as it shows that Stan Cohen also believes that the way in which teenagers have been stereotyped has resulted in them be labelled as "folk devils" which has meant that they gained a negative image in the media. This connotes that the public now find teenagers a threat and believe that they are a group that will cause trouble in the society.

6. Carter, Cynthia, Weaver, C.Kay (2003): Violence and the Media, Buckingham; Open University Press.
Page 52

"Barry (1999) remembers that Blackboard Jungle and Rebel without a cause were deeply alarming in their portrayal of teenagers willing to defy school teachers and beat up other students. This response provides an interesting indication of the emotional impact that the films had upon Barry in that they promoted consideration of the morality and consequences of the students violent acts."

This quote links to my critical investigation as it shows that due to the behaviour of teenagers in movies, it has resulted in teenagers in reality behaving like this. This connotes that Barry believes that the representation of teenagers has been created due to the movies that are influencing teenagers and by watching movies that are represented teenagers negatively, it has resulted in the public also believing this representation which makes teenagers be represented more negatively in the media.

7. Nicholos, Joe, Price, John (1998): Advanced Studies in Media, United Kingdom; Nelson.
Page 44

"Murphy believes that these ideas become stereotypes which are 'unrealistic' and 'unsatisfactory'."

This quote will relate to my critical investigation as it is based on stereotypes which shows that the representations that are created are unrealistic and unsatisfactory. This connotes that stereotypes that are created in the media are not always realistic and are stereotypes that cannot be believed on as they can be exaggerated at times. This will relate to my topic as it is based on the representations of teenagers in Hollywood productions and I can look at if this is the case in Hollywood productions.

8. Branston, Gill, Stafford, Roy (1996): The Media Studies Book Second Edition, London; Routledge.

Page 133

"It is important that debates over representation should not keep simply to the level of textual analysis. Other activities are also crucial in shifting taken per granted assumptions. These include:

- Political change and the ways it can widen.

- Employment patterns and production achievements in media industries.

- Access to dissenting mechanisms like the right of reply.

- Audiences ability to come across, and feel comfortable with a wide range of media forms."

This quote will relate to my critical investigation as it shows what representations are based on. When looking at my critical investigation, I can see whether this representation is being creates which will allow me to understand the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions.

9. O'Sullivian, Tim, Dutton, Brian, Rayner, Philip (1994): Studying the Media Second Edition, Great Britain; Arnold

Page 86

"Martin Barker (1998) goes further, to the extent of dismissing the concept of the stereotype as a 'useless tool for investigating texts'. Its first objection is that stereotypes are condemned both for misrepresenting the 'real world'."

This quote will relate to my critical investigation as it shows that the media represent certain groups in a negative way which results to the public misrepresenting certain groups. This is possible in the representation of teenagers as they may be represented negatively because of the media and this is then making the public believe this about society too.

10. Curran, James, Gurevitah, Michael eds (2005): Mass Media and Society, London, Hodder Education.

Page 341

"One way that the media organise power is through stereotypical representations which re inscribe social rules and roles that are often simultaneously sexist and racist (Fair, 1996) troubling images that some believe are harder to detect in visual representations than in the written or spoken work (Wallace, 1990)".

The quote relates to my critical investigation as it is showing the way in which the media organise power through stereotypical representations. This shows some representations are harder to detect. This connotes that all representations are not easily formed but can be difficult.

Articles Related to my Critical Investigation

2009-11-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

Three articles related to my critical investigation from The Independent. . .

1. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/meet-the-squeaky-clean-movie-teens-1739712.html

Meet the squeaky clean movie teens

The debauched days of the Rat Pack, the Brat Pack and other young Hollywood hedonists with their excess-all-areas lifestyles are gone, says Gill Pringle. Today's stars don't drink, do drugs, or have sex.

Friday, 10 July 2009
Emma Watson

I don't drink, I've never smoked a cigarette in my life and I don't take drugs. I tried a drink a few years ago but it just wasn't my thing so I simply stopped. I prefer to go out clubbing without having a drink," says Harry Potter newcomer, Freddie Stroma, 22, matter-of-factly over salad at the sedate Mulholland Tennis Club in Los Angeles.

Demure not decadent, polite not pouty, sober not sloshed: a new breed of Good Boys and Girls – call them The Squeaky Cleans – is replacing Hollywood's naughty bunch. Their role models are Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster, not Lindsay or Britney. They worship culture, not cocaine, and their favourite haunts are gyms and museums, not nightclubs.

Stroma's co-star and Potter "love interest" Emma Watson, 19, echoes those sentiments: "For me, I didn't have time for that [to rebel]. I was working too hard to be the rebellious teenager, though I'm sure when I hit my 30s I'll go crazy. I'll have this rush of hormones and madness."
Related articles

She's only joking, of course, stressing her gratitude that she came of age in England rather than in the madness of Hollywood where former teen star Lindsay Lohan epitomises the dangers of growing up too fast, too young: "Don't you think I'm one of them? Don't you think I'm crazy?" she asks coyly. "No? Well, thank you. But I can totally understand why they go nuts. The level of interest in their lives and the pressure to be perfect, and they're teenagers. And that's what you do, you screw up," she muses.

When Disney-created pop band the Jonas Brothers announced last year that they had pledged to abstain from premarital sex, they were met by a flurry of ridicule and parodied at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards by the less-than-pure Russell Brand. While today's young stars aren't exactly in a rush to follow the Jonas Brothers by going out and buying purity rings, there's undeniably a new awareness at work.

The influential Los Angeles-based talent manager Melanie Greene – who guides the careers of Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick and Paul Bettany as well as Stroma – is, for one, delighted by the change in attitude she sees in today's rising stars: "Freddie is a wonderful role model, and I personally welcome the positive new approach that he embodies. Bad behaviour is becoming less and less tolerated. For any young actor who's serious about their career, good values are important."

Hollywood's Squeaky Cleans today boast a growing membership including Kristen Stewart, 19, Dakota Fanning, 15, and Camilla Belle, 22.

Well educated, The Squeaky Cleans are smart, clean-living and moral. Career-orientated, they keep themselves busy with wholesome activities while saving themselves for the right person. They refrain from attending every opening of an envelope, instead preferring to do charity work, pray or enjoy a light, alcohol-free, supper with friends. Indeed, young Fanning even recently pledged, before her mother Joy and agent Cindy Osbrink, that she won't have a teenage pregnancy or get any tattoos or piercings, at least until she turns 18...

These actors all started young, Fanning in I Am Sam at six; Watson debuting in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, aged 11; Belle starring in A Little Princess at nine, and Stewart making her major movie debut as Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room, aged 11, before finding fame as Twilight's Bella.

Stroma's initiation began a little later, and when he walked up the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince red carpet, he celebrated not only his screen debut but also a 2:1 BSc in neuroscience from University College London.

"Education has always been very important to me," says Stroma, who attended the Hogwarts-style Radley College, a boys' boarding school in Oxfordshire. "I enjoyed every minute there. It was a very good school with great facilities and great teaching. It was lovely and old-fashioned and they really taught their children how to be gentlemen. I was having so much fun that I rarely got homesick."

And, despite the fact he has no skeletons in his closet, after the BBC announced his casting as the Gryffindor Quidditch keeper Cormac McLaggen in the sixth installment of the Harry Potter franchise 18 months ago, Stroma eschewed Twitter, Facebook and all the usual forms of youthful social networking.

"I left Facebook after Facebook groups began appearing about me and suddenly your personal photographs start becoming public property," explains the handsome, blond, 5ft 11in actor.
"When the BBC first announced the new cast members, I hadn't even started filming and yet there were all these websites, all having something to say about me. It was very bizarre. It was mostly complimentary, but because I do a bit of modelling as well, they'd got hold of my portfolio so all those pictures got around too. Now there are message boards about me: all these people claiming to be good sources saying things that are completely inaccurate, like my parents are divorced and stuff, none of which is true.

"It's not like there's any drunken photographs out there of me, it was just more the fact that they were my photos of friends and family; suddenly, everyone could look at them."
In common with his fellow Squeaky Cleans, Stroma lives vicariously on-screen, in a world where these smart young actors can make believe all the things they refuse to do in their real lives – Belle playing the mistress of a man twice her age in her latest film, Adrift, while Fanning was seen fall-down drunk in her recent sci-fi film, Push, although she insists that's only for the camera: "I didn't actually drink for that scene. I didn't even know that I was going to do it that way until the minute I did it," she grins.

Fanning has been dubbed The Million Dollar Baby, and her co-stars already number Tom Cruise, Sean Penn and Robert De Niro. Having grown up in such an adult world, this religious girl feels no peer pressure to drink at parties or otherwise misbehave: "That's not something I think about right now and hopefully will never have to experience. I know what's right for me, and I stay on my path."

Priding herself on good behaviour, she adds: "I don't think I'm a brat although I realise that most people think that kids in the business are brats. But you don't have to be a brat to be an actress. I just enjoy it so much that there's no time to do anything like that. And why would I want to, when I'm enjoying myself? My family and friends keep me grounded. I'm a Southern Baptist, and I grew up in the south, so every Sunday I went to Sunday school and I've grown up in a family where that's really important," says the actress.

"I've been to some of those Hollywood clubs with my friends, but we just show up and we're like, 'OK, this is what it is! Great!' and then we leave... I don't even drink alcohol. It's pretty much sparkling water. I've never been a big drinker," says Belle who apparently chose Jonas when forced to make a romantic decision between Jonas and Twilight's Robert Pattinson.
Ask if it's fun being the envy of every teenage girl on the planet, she smiles serenely: "Well, I don't know, you can't help what people say or what people write. People are going to say what they want to say. I am just living my life and I'm perfectly happy," says the actress who still lives mostly with her parents despite the fact she bought her own home – 10 minutes away from them – two years ago.

Likewise Watson sees no harm in waiting. "I'm sure my knight in shining armour will come along at some point, although hopefully not too soon because I have a lot of work to get through and I don't want to be distracted," she says.

While talking with Kristen Stewart on the set of New Moon last month in Vancouver, she sighed at my suggestion that she might have anything in common with Bella, her tormented screen alter ego: "You wouldn't believe how boring I am in real life. I don't have any of the issues that Bella has. If I wake up in a bad mood, I'll go running or do some kind of physical exertion. If you completely exert yourself, you can, like, clear your mind. I don't focus on success and I'm not an impulsive person," she says. "My biggest splurge to date is buying my own home – complete with a studio where my mom can paint."

Neatly placing his knife and fork together on his salad plate, Stroma is nothing but impressed by his Potter co-stars, concluding: "There is that Hollywood scene of young stars who seem to get a lot of bad press, but Emma, Dan [Radcliffe] and Rupert [Grint] are such brilliant role models. There's simply nothing bad to report about them because they're all really lovely and they are down to earth.

"Maybe it's because they work so hard and it's been one film after the other –and they've been doing it since they were 12 or so – and they work such long days. They must have time to let loose or whatever, but they're working constantly so they grew up quick, I think. They learned how to behave themselves and I imagine they must have had good role models around them to look up to."

If Stroma's post-Potter career doesn't pan out, then he already has a back-up plan: "If my dramatic career doesn't work out, I will go on to research and find cures for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's and other motor neurone diseases. It's a very exciting field of research. But I'd like to continue in drama so it wouldn't be very smart of me if I blew this amazing opportunity with an inappropriate lifestyle."

2. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/hollywood-under-fire-for-targeting-violent-films-at-teenagers-697327.html

Hollywood under fire for targeting violent films at teenagers

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Tuesday, 29 August 2000

A year-long US government investigation into Hollywood's marketing of violence is expected to conclude that the entertainment industry has deliberately and aggressively lured teenagers and younger children towards graphic material supposedly reserved for adult audiences only.

The report, commissioned in the wake of last year's shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, is likely to renew an anxious debate about the role of film, television and video games in fomenting real-life violence. It could also prompt new calls for regulation of the entertainment industry, which for the moment largely regulates itself.

According to leaks published in The Washington Post, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report, to be published next month, shows that R-rated films - which teenagers are supposed to see only in the company of an adult - are routinely advertised during television programmes with a large under-age audience. Producers of violent video games have also been found to advertise in magazines aimed at the teenage market.

Perhaps most damningly, the government investigators have unearthed internal marketing documents from movie studios in which violence is acknowledged to be a useful hook with which to capture the youth market.

It is unclear what the impact of the report might be, particularly in the middle of a presidential election campaign in which both major parties have assiduously avoided Hollywood-bashing for fear of alienating voters and West Coast campaign contributors. It will, nevertheless, be the centrepiece of congressional hearings on violence in the entertainment industry, scheduled for next month, and will put pressure on lawmakers to consider regulation of movie advertising, if not of the movies themselves.

Already, a group of 60 psychologists have written to the American Psychological Association lambasting their fellow professionals for offering Hollywood producers advice on how best to market their products to children of all ages - something they call an "abuse of psychological knowledge".

Film studio executives and producers could be called to testify before Congress - under subpoena if necessary - much as they were during the McCarthyite anti-Communist witch-hunts of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Curiously, the committee holding the hearings will be chaired by another presidential player in this year's campaign, Republican Senator John McCain.
FTC reports have a mixed record in bringing about change in marketing practices. RJ Reynolds, a tobacco giant, cancelled its Joe Camel cartoon three years ago after the FTC accused it of marketing cigarettes to children. An attempt to stop the manufacturers of sugar-laden cereals advertising to young children in the late 1970s was initially successful, but the legislation enacted was overturned after two years under pressure from food industry lobbyists.

3. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/teenagers-from-hell-1351060.html

Teenagers from hell

Dark deeds done because, like, you know, nobody understands me, OK? `The Craft' is a teen movie from heaven

Emma Forrest
Thursday, 7 November 1996

There have been a lot of duff films made about teenagers. We're so used to the likes of Rumblefish and Footloose that it's a shock when they get it right. In Michael Lehmann's 1989 classic, Heathers, the latest craze at school is teen suicide. Like any other high school trend, it belongs to the rich and beautiful. When a dumpy girl attempts to take her own life, she is scoffed at. Heathers works so beautifully because it starts from the premise that its target audience is smart enough to understand the concept of satire. Similarly, Clueless was a huge hit because it is a reworking of an author (Jane Austen) who never once told a lie about human relationships.

The best teen flick since Clueless is The Craft, in which four unpopular high school girls become witches. The good girl, Robin Tunney, comes on like a junior Agent Scully, all cynicism and ginger hair. But it is the evil Fairuza Balk who, like Winona Ryder of Heathers, is going to have a serious career.

Balk is a cross between Christopher Walken and Norma Desmond, always descending Gothic staircases, nail varnish chipped and eyes shining with gleeful nuttiness. Her character, Nancy, uses her powers to kill her mother's abusive boyfriend and to cause the school's bitchy blonde to have premature hair loss. Like the subtly subversive Addams Family Values, The Craft sees growing up as a battle between the smart, brooding dark kids - the blacks, the Jews, the working class - and the cheery blondes. The miserable, the morbid and the Morrissey fans will inherit the earth.

The tabloid press always seems surprised when a child commits a crime. The Craft acknowledges that the young, especially teenage girls, are capable of nastiness unimaginable to most adults. Warned by a friendly bus driver to "watch out for those weirdos", Nancy hisses: "We are the weirdos, Mister." It is a beautiful moment. Tunney, on the other hand, is weak: the only spells she casts are love potions to win the geeky school jock. You get the impression that she is the one who really abuses her powers. Sure, Nancy unleashes the wrath of God and Satan, but at least she doesn't pander to a boy. The girl thinks big.

The Craft has all the components of a great teen film - the obvious star- in-waiting in Fairuza, the requisite lousy make-over, in which they take the prettiest character and put lip-gloss on her (Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club; here it's poor Neve Campbell). The look to copy is Catholic schoolgirl meets Goth - all tartan miniskirts, knee-high socks and black kohl. It also has a hip sound-track (Elastica, Portishead, and a heavy metal version of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows").

The Craft is the bastard child of Carrie and the Brat Packers. After the Loners (Clift, Brando and Dean) and before Friends (bouffant with blonde highlights and her chums with black bob, buzz cut, floppy fringe and centre parting) were the Brat Pack. Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Matt Dillon, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore and Molly Ringwald were an amalgamation of teen rebels, jocks, princesses and psychos wandering in and out of a collection of mid-Eighties John Hughes movies. Their roles were as defined as the Village People's and their acting was just as good.

Brat Pack films were the football pitch where proto-Rachel from Friends and sub-James Dean went to play each other off. For two hours the loner and the spoilt princess would eye each other with distaste, before kissing each other's faces off in the last reel.

Apart from The Craft, The Breakfast Club is the perfect teen movie of all time. Ringwald, Nelson, Estevez, Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall play five students with nothing in common who are forced to spend a whole Saturday's detention together. Adults do not intrude, except in the form of one corrupt teacher who gets his comeuppance. The film struck a chord because it depicts young people trying to come to terms with each other, rather than with their parents or the establishment. Hey, we're self-centred, but vulnerable. The gap within the generation is generally more interesting than any perceived generation gap.

Ringwald also starred in the seminal Pretty in Pink, as a poor girl going out with a rich guy (Andrew McCarthy). I always found it fascinating because the American idea of "poor" is so twisted: we know Molly is on the poverty line because she drives a Chevrolet instead of a Porsche, and because she wears pink scarves. Ringwald's career never took off because, she claims, she is still seen as a teenager. The same fate befell Michael J Fox when he tried to cross over from the Back to the Future trilogy to the cocaine saga Bright Lights, Big City.

Two alumni are attempting to resurrect their careers via sitcom: Molly Ringwald in the Friends rip-off Townies, and Judd Nelson in the Brooke Shields vehicle Suddenly Susan. Ringwald plays a blue-collar waitress and Nelson a newspaper editor. It's very confusing for someone who's seen The Breakfast Club 27 times. "No," you find yourself yelling at the screen, "some mistake. Molly is the princess and Judd is the rebel, and that's how things have always been."

Fear, out next week, fails on every level at which The Craft succeeds. It is supposed to be a teenage Fatal Attraction, a kind of My First Stalker Movie. It stars Reese Witherspoon and ex-rapper Marky Mark, who I decline to call Mark Wahlberg because I don't think he's earnt it: speaking very quietly does not make you a great actor. Our heroine has a winning combination of prissy face and lockjaw. Marky Mark looks like a muscular pixie. The first half is in the tradition of Liz and Monty in A Place in the Sun, except violent and awful, with unattractive stars. This is not a teen film, but a Teenie movie, for kids who exist purely in the heads of 50- year-old executives. It is as laboured and off the mark as Teenie TV like The Girlie Show and The Word.

The point is, you don't need to cast a teenage boy as a psycho, because teenagers are awful enough as it is; that's what makes them interesting, as The Breakfast Club, Heathers and The Craft prove. By the end of Fear, Mark has killed the best friend, murdered the pet dog, tied up the family and made the object of his affection watch.

Summing up her dislike of Fear, one young girl scoffed, "He did all that and she's not even pretty." Make a Teenie movie and be judged on Teenie termsn

Ageism Article

2009-11-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Selina Article . . .

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/08/channelfive.television)

Selina stokes a diversity debate that needs addressing

Emily Bell
The Guardian, Monday 8 September 2008

It will come as a surprise to few but a delight to many that Selina Scott is suing Five over ageism in its refusal to hire her for a maternity cover role and choice of younger presenters instead. It is a delight not because Five is worse than anyone else in this respect, but because it stokes a debate which urgently needs to be taken more seriously. Casual sexism, ageism and racism are the collective dirty secret of the vast majority of media institutions, and they represent as much of an industrial challenge as they do a moral one.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission's Report on Sex and Power, published last week, drew a depressing picture for women in the workplace. In general the progression of women at the highest level in the workplace is pitiful and the media are no exception: only 13.6% of national newspaper editors (including the Herald and Western Mail) are women; only 10% of media FTSE's 350 companies have women at the helm; and at the BBC, which has often been held as an exemplar of diversity, women make up less than 30% of most senior management positions. It puts into context Jeremy Paxman's deranged rant about the white male in television. Ethnic minority representation is even worse.

A couple of weeks ago Pat Younge, former BBC head of sports programmes and planning who left to work for Discovery in the US, caused a stir at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival by saying that diversity targets should be like financial targets - you don't hit them, you get fired. I have to say that as board champion for diversity at Guardian News and Media I would currently be firing myself and most of the board for some missed targets. But Younge is right - because diversity targets are not just a feelgood add-on, they are vital to the health of any media business. The temptation to hire in one's own image for most managers is as irresistible as it is subliminal - which is why there are a lot of opinionated women working in digital management at the Guardian, and why we all need targets to remind us to look beyond the mirror.

On screen, any number of unconventional-looking ageing blokes (Jeremy Clarkson, Jonathan Ross, Chris Moyles, Alan Sugar, Adrian Chiles, Jeremy Paxman, Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan) are paid at a top rate for the talent they possess beyond their appearance. For women it is an altogether different story - appearance and age are clearly factors in choosing female presenters in a way that they aren't for men.

The media should be deeply concerned about this un-diversity - not because it represents moral turpitude on our part, but because it represents bloody awful business sense. What is happening to the UK population at the moment? It is ethnically diversifying, and it is ageing. It is also the case that it is, as of the 2001 Census, marginally more female than it is male. And we live longer - so older women, and non-white potential audiences are on the rise. In London, the major urban conurbation and key market for so many media brands, the population is around 37% ethnically diverse, yet this is nowhere near reflected in the management structures of media companies. Or indeed in their on-screen or in-paper representation.

How though, can you hope to address audiences for which you have no instinctive feel, and towards which you show casual discrimination? We are all in danger of becoming irrelevant to the changing demographics of our target audience at a time when holding any kind of audience is key to survival. If white men are so good at solving business problems - and given that they represent well over 80% of FTSE 100 directors we can speculate that this is a skill they must possess in measure - then I'm surprised they haven't grasped this one already.

Articles Related To My Critical & Linked Production

2009-11-25T09:56:00.001-08:00

Three articles related to my critical investigation and linked production . . .

1. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-interviews/2009/11/24/high-school-musical-star-zac-efron-i-m-putting-aside-the-teen-star-image-for-grown-up-roles-86908-21845398/

High School musical star Zac Efron: I'm putting aside the teen star image for grown-up roles

Nov 24 2009 By Siobhan Synnot

HE set young hearts aflutter with his High School Musical performances - but has Zac Efron had enough of his wholesome image? The teen heart-throb is ready to be taken seriously as an actor with his new adult movie Me And Orson Welles. And the 21-year-old admits he ditched his leading role in the remake of Footloose because he feared being stuck with song and dance numbers. "I have to shake things up because it's not good to repeat yourself. I want to be in a place where things get scary," he says.

That meant shedding Zac's squeaky clean boy-next-door image, and earlier this year he took part in a sexy, down-and-dirty photoshoot. Then he poked fun at his three High School Musical movies by appearing in a comedy skit on American TV where Troy returns to school to warn his former classmates that in the real world basketball teams do not start singing for no reason.

As an actor, Zac hopes he will eventually work with directors such as Martin Scorsese, who made The Departed, Raging Bull and Gangs Of NewYork. Some reckon Zac's attempt to grow up onscreen might be a huge risk for the good-looking actor. But he says he's prepared to do anything if he can work with heavyweight talents. "I would do any role with Scorsese," he says.
But he doesn't want to do any more musicals, which is why he recently announced he was dropping out playing the lead in a reboot of the 1984 musical Footloose.

"Me And Orson Welles is a fantastic project and a lot of people worked very hard to make it happen. But this is a crucial moment for me right now and it's an important next step," he says carefully. Dropping out meant disappointing his High School director and friend Kenny Ortega. But he reckons that this was the right thing to do. "I love musicals, but I feel like I've made my mark there. I'm looking for new challenges now," says Zac.

The three High School Musical films have made a fortune worldwide, thanks largely to the highly devoted fanbase who worship both Zac and his co-star in the series, Vanessa Hudgens, 20, who is also his real-life girlfriend. However, the signs that Zac has been keen to move on have been around for a while. A few years ago he announced he wouldn't be joining the High School Musical concert tour as he had a role in the hit movie musical Hairspray.

Around the same time, he quipped to a magazine: "If I had to hear the High School Musical songs any more, I probably would have jumped off something very tall." Earlier this year he appeared in a teen comedy, 17 Again, alongside Friends star Matt Perry, where no singing or dancing was needed or expected. Zac had never played basketball at school, so he had to learn for High School Musical. Those skills came in handy for 17 Again, for which he also learnt to spin the ball on his finger.

Now Zac is proud to have made his first arthouse movie, Me And Orson Welles, where he plays a struggling young actor in 1937 who manages to land a job working with legendary actor, writer and director Welles. The film is a fiction, but of course Orson Welles really did exist - although not all Zac's fans will have heard of Orson, who had affairs with some of Hollywood's most glamorous stars and went on to make Citizen Kane, which has often been called the greatest movie ever made.

This may not cut much ice with High School Musical fans, since Orson died long before many of them were born. "I don't think that's a problem," argues Zac. "Hopefully, they will see the film and be intrigued enough by Orson Welles to look out for his work." He says he had the kind of challenges he craved in this picture - including playing the lute (actually a disguised ukulele) and performing his first lines of Shakespeare, since his character has a part in Julius Caesar.
Zac is hoping the movie will win him a whole new fanbase.

"It's the first time I've ever watched a movie that I'm in and in the end I'm like, 'OK! I didn't check my watch once!'" he grins. "The roles that you want to play are the ones that are just out of reach and the ones you have to stretch for, that you have to work hard to achieve."

"I'm looking for people to work with who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty and push me around a little bit." Zac has also just finished work on The Death And Life Of Charlie St Cloud, about a graveyard caretaker who talks to his dead brother. "It sounds very grim, but it's a fantastic story," he says. "It's a little bit more grown-up. It deals with some heavy material." Me And Orson Welles is probably the closest to Zac's own experiences, since it deals with a young actor trying to negotiate his way through his career, and juggle a crush on one of his co-workers (played by Stardust's Claire Danes).

Most of the film was shot on the Isle of Man, where the director discovered a theatre that was almost exactly like the one Orson Welles used at the time. "Once we filled it with extras dressed in Thirties attire, the place was very believable. It even smelled like an old theatre," enthuses Zac. And he says he spent a lot of time there with leading lady Claire. "We were basically stuck there, we couldn't leave. There was nowhere to go on the Isle of Man. So we lived in that theatre for several weeks. It was fun and exciting, but it was also kind of maddening. I went a little bit insane."

But some of Zac's fans still managed to track down their hero, especially when word spread across the island that Troy Bolton from High School Musical was in town. Zac recalls: "I was looking forward to that seclusion because I'd heard it was a pretty quiet place. But they found it. We had a small crowd of young girls and boys hooraying us as we would drive up to set. I felt pretty welcome."

What Zac doesn't mention is that he also took time out of filming to visit one fan on the island.
Connor Steventon was dying of cancer, and big-hearted Zac visited the tragic youngster as a surprise guest at his 13th birthday party last March. Sadly, Connor died just 18 days later.
The quiet act of kindness shows the mature side of the young star, who has always been grateful for his fans' support.

He says: "I feel pretty blessed at this point to have one of the most devoted fanbases in the world. I'd like to embrace that and take them on to the next adventure.' Zac's down-to-earth nature has been said to come from his non-showbiz background. Born in California to an engineer father and secretary mother, he took up acting at age 11 after his parents took him to audition for a musical play called Gypsy.

"It's a big thing to overcome your first audition," he says. "My parents didn't even tell me they were taking me to an audition. I thought we were going to buy a new video game and I'd never sung in front of anybody before. "I walked into a room where there were words on a chalkboard, a guy behind a piano and about five or six intimidating producers sitting behind a desk. They said, 'All right, sing the words to the song."

"I think I blacked out. When I left, they said I'd be invited for a callback. I can never repay my parents because it's become my whole life." Now Zac is hoping that the time is right to move up from teen idol to a fully fledged actor, like his hero Leonardo DiCaprio. When he met Zac at a basketball game, Leo was happy to hand over some serious advice to the rising star. "He said to me, if you really want to mess this all up, try heroin'," recalls Zac.

"He said, 'That's pretty much the only way you're going to screw this up. You shouldn't go down that road - it will mess you up. Do not do drugs'." Ambitious Zac also reckons that making good movies means he won't be settling down to marry long-term girlfriend Vanessa any time soon. "There's no more terrifying prospect than raising a family right now," he confesses.
"I don't think I'm responsible enough. That's years and years down the road."

Me And Orson Welles is out in the UK on December 4.

2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/nov/24/the-lovely-bones-film-review

The Lovely Bones

Leicester Square, London

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 November 2009 20.00 GMT

Saoirse Ronan in The Lovely Bones. How does one make a PG-certificate film about the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.
Director Peter Jackson provides an answer of sorts with The Lovely Bones, which leaves the murder unseen and the rape unmentioned.

The Lovely Bones
Production year: 2009
Countries: UK, USA
Directors: Peter Jackson
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci

His reward is a blushing mainstream entertainment that was tonight deemed fit to be introduced to polite society at a royal premiere in Leicester Square. Our reward is anyone's guess. The drama ushers us through the afterlife of Susie Salmon (Atonement's Saoirse Ronan), a small-town kid in 1970s Pennsylvania who is killed by the local pervert (Stanley Tucci) and looks down on her scattered, shattered family from her place in limbo. She sees her mum (Rachel Weisz) flee the coop and her dad (Mark Wahlberg) come apart at the seams. From this celestial vantage, she starts to fear for the safety of her little sister (Rose McIver), whose jogging route leads her regularly past the killer's suburban home.

It's not that The Lovely Bones is a bad movie, exactly. It is handsomely made and strongly acted, while its woozy, lullaby ambience recalls Jackson's work on the brilliant Heavenly Creatures, before he set forth on his epic voyage through The Lord of the Rings. Here, he audaciously conjures up heaven as designed by a teenage girl – a kitsch spread of sunflower fields, spinning turntables and the sort of airbrushed waterfalls that could have spilled straight off an Athena poster. All of which is entirely fitting, and often captivating. The problem, though, is that The Lovely Bones also gives us a real world as designed by a teenage girl. The land that Susie leaves behind is so infested with cartoon archetypes and whimsical asides that, at times, it scarcely feels real at all.

Might the fault lie with the source novel? Alice Sebold's best-selling book similarly held up Susie Salmon's innocent fancies as a kind of talisman to ward off evil. It dared to spin a sentimental fantasy out of a grisly tragedy, offsetting the tang of sulphur with the sweet taste of candyfloss. The difference was that Sebold's novel was not scared to look the central horror in the face. This ensured that it at least part earned its subsequent flights into the ether.

The screen version, by contrast, is so infuriatingly coy, and so desperate to preserve the modesty of its soulful victim that it amounts to an ongoing clean-up operation. Gone is the dismembered body part that alerts the family to Susie's fate. Gone is her anguished mother's adulterous affair with the detective who leads the case. Gone is all mention of what really transpired in that lonely 1970s cornfield. Is this really the best way to secure a crime scene and retrieve the victim? Jackson turns up with his eyes averted, spraying cloying perfume to the left and right.

3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/dec/19/film-review-twilight-teen-vampire

Twilight

Girl meets vampire. Girl loves vampire. Girl and vampire go to the Prom ... Peter Bradshaw enjoys this unorthodox but sweet and satirical take on the teen vampire movie

Peter Bradshaw
The Guardian, Friday 19 December 2008

Mad, bad and deeply unwholesome to know ... Twilight. Let's be honest. Which of us, in our impressionable teenage years, has not displaced an irrational horror of sex into a freaky emo crush on a moody vampire with sky-high cheekbones and a taste for human blood? I mean, haven't we all - in a very real sense?

Production year: 2008
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 12A
Runtime: 121 mins
Directors: Catherine Hardwicke
Cast: Billy Burke, Elizabeth Reaser, Kristen Stewart, Nikki Reed, Peter Facinelli, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

Since her celebrated 2003 film Thirteen, director Catherine Hardwicke has accumulated some expertise in the dark side of adolescence and puts it to good use in this wildly enjoyable new film, an adaptation of the bestselling young-adult novel by Stephenie Meyer. Twilight is mad, bad and deeply unwholesome to know, and perhaps, in its serious way, the most entertaining teen film since 10 Things I Hate About You. It is certainly a new twist on the time-honoured nice-girl-bad-boy storyline. Virginal lovelies from the right side of the tracks have been conceiving the hots for unsuitable guys since Olivia Newton-John in Grease, Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing and Claire Danes in TV's My So-Called Life. But this is something else: an outrageous story of young love played absolutely straight, and actually better and more convincingly acted than many of the ponderous grown-up "relationship" movies we have to sit through. It sports with the high school genre and America's pro-abstinence True Love Waits movement. But it's got something other than satire on its mind.

Kirsten Stewart plays Bella, a winningly pale girl who is the child of a broken home: she has been living with her divorced mom in Phoenix, Arizona, but now proposes to live with dad, a police chief in a small northwestern town near a snowy landscape which vampire connoisseurs will instantly notice is a little reminiscent of the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania. (I am incidentally waiting for a post-modern vampire story to pay homage to Dracula's relationship with Yorkshire.)

Bella shows up for her first day at her new school and instantly establishes herself as a bit of a klutz, but not outrageously so, and she is certainly enough of a babe to get plenty of acceptable-looking guys to want to make friends. But it is Bella's destiny not to be attracted to these nice, normal people and, near the movie's climax, we see her looking poignantly from the window of a speeding car at these very same nice, normal people emerging from a diner, a veritable tableau of the nice, safe normality that could have been hers.

For Bella is instantly attracted to a gaunt and charismatic hottie called Edward Cullen, played by the young British star Robert Pattinson. Edward is one of a super-cool bunch of standoffish kids who seem to have dark hair, pale skin and a very great aversion to sunshine. Edward spends a good deal of his time looking at Bella intensely, up through his eyelashes, as if in homage to Princess Diana. Pretty soon Edward is using what appear to be superpowers to save Bella from various scrapes - and then he confesses his feelings for her and the truth about himself. Edward is undead, from a family of semi-nice vampires who live in the forest, and who have vowed to be "vegetarians" - that is, live only on animal flesh.

Edward and Bella are in agonies. However much he wants to give in to his feelings for Bella in the bedroom department - and however much Bella wants him to - he cannot, because he will become, ahem, carried away. The quaint niceties of conventional penetrative sex will not be sufficient. In the heat of the moment, Edward will need some old-school neck munching and blood slurping and he will therefore condemn Bella to an eternity in the vampire's twilight - and he, of course, loves her too much for that. Edward shows up in Bella's bedroom and they try a little innocent making out before Edward has to wrench himself away, mastering himself with as much virile self-control as a 19th-century curate. Edward is enough of a gentleman to take Bella to the prom, traditionally the venue at which America's young women decide to surrender their virginity to some profoundly unworthy suitor. They smooch a little on the dancefloor, but then he inclines his teeth towards her ivory throat, before whispering a question with infinite gentleness: is she ready?

Of course, all this parodies conservative America's preoccupation with Just Saying No - but it also, in a strange and unexpected way, responds to the Just Say Yes movement. When anything and everything is sexualised in the media, when women and women's bodies are obsessively presented in sexual terms, then what happens if you don't fit in? To many intelligent young people, the world of the sexually active may indeed seem like an unlovely vampiric cult. Is there any romance, any fervency, any rapture at all that has nothing to do with any of this commercially determined sexiness?

Twilight offers its own uproariously weird and engaging answer. It is, in its unworldly way, sweetly idealistic with a charm all of its own: a teen romance to get your teeth into.

My Critical Investigation && Linked Production

2009-11-25T09:47:00.000-08:00

Critical Investigation . . .

For my critical investigation, I will be doing "an investigation into the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions and how this has changed over the years."

Linked Production . . .

For my linked production, we will be "producing a front cover, contents page and features for a ten magazine."

Media Guardian Work..!

2009-11-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

Guardian Article . . .

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/15/bbc.television)

The BBC will only survive by understanding its diverse consumers
Peter Salmon
The Guardian, Monday 15 September 2008

A snail could crawl the entire length of the Great Wall of China in just slightly more time than the 200 years it will take for women to be equally represented in parliament. That was just one of a series of striking statistics from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in their Sex and Power report published last week.

It added that women hold just 11% of FTSE directorships, with the judiciary and others also strongly criticised. At the BBC, the figures are a bit better - almost 38% of all senior managers are women - but it does bring into sharp focus the challenge the whole media industry is facing to improve diversity among its workforce.

Tomorrow's Guardian Ethnic Media Summit is a chance to debate what is arguably our most pressing diversity issue - ensuring more talent from ethnic minority communities reaches the upper echelons of broadcasting. The growth particularly of young ethnic minority audiences, is soaring - way above the population average - making them a critical cultural and business challenge for everyone in our sector.

Three Different Articles on Race & Religion . . .

1. Cadbury Dairy Milk ad cleared of racism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/11/cadbury-dairy-milk-cleared-racism

Regulator says TV campaign featuring Ghanaian musicians did not perpetuate colonial stereotypes
Wednesday 11 November 2009 07.12 GMT

The Cadbury Dairy Milk advert

The advertising regulator has cleared Cadbury of racism and perpetuating colonial stereotypes of African people in its latest TV advertising campaign.
Cadbury's campaign featured Ghanaian musician Tinny and aimed to promote the chocolate brand's tie-up with the Fairtrade organisation for cocoa from the African nation for its Dairy Milk range.

The Advertising Standards Authority received 29 complaints that the TV campaign was demeaning to African people and perpetuated racial stereotypes.

However, the ASA's council has decided not to formally investigate the complaints. "Although the council acknowledges that Cadbury had used stereotypes in their ads, they felt that the stereotypes were not harmful or offensive," said the ASA, which argued that most ads use some form of stereotype device to get a message across.

Cadbury has steadfastly maintained that the company went to "considerable lengths" to ensure that the ad campaign was culturally sensitive and developed as a "joyous and uplifting portrayal of Ghanaian culture and something which Ghanaians can feel proud of".

In 2007 the ASA banned an ad for Cadbury's Trident chewing gum, which featured a black "dub poet" speaking in rhyme with a strong Caribbean accent, after more than 500 complaints that it was racist.

2. Range of Muslim views not represented in media, says Dorothy Byrne

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/20/raceandreligion-channel4

Oliver Luft in Valencia
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 20 November 2008 14.58 GMT

Broadcasters fail to fully represent the range of Muslim voices in Britain, the head of Channel 4 news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, said today.

Byrne told the News Xchange 2008 conference in Valencia that there was a problem with the media making sweeping generalisations about Islam, which she said was "not at all helpful".

Addressing a session looking at the representation of Islam in the news media, Byrne told delegates the findings of a report her network commissioned on the attitudes of British Muslims contrasted with their representation on UK TV news.

"I think there is a strong tendency for broadcasters to go and interview young men outside mosques to find out what Muslims think. In our survey, we found that 48% of British Muslims do not actually attend mosques. Therefore you wouldn't get an accurate picture of what people

think," she said.

"They [British broadcasters] have a tendency to go to just one or two organisations for comment ... one is the Muslim Council of Britain. In our survey ,when we asked Muslims who they thought represented them only 11% of British Muslims thought the Muslim Council of Britain represented them, compared with 19% of people who thought their member of parliament represented them. I think we have got to be very thoughtful and careful," she added.

Byrne said that the research highlighted how little the public, and some Muslims themselves, knew about the diversity of Islam in Britain.

As a result, she said, Channel 4 had decided to address very specific issues when making programmes about Islam to avoid generalisations.

"The problem in the media is when people make sweeping generalisations, I think that's just not helpful at all," Byrne added.
"The other thing is that we should not be afraid to tell the truth, we don't need to be politically correct, I don't think it helps anybody to be politically correct."

3. Gay Police Association challenges ad watchdog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/oct/24/raceandreligion.religion

Mark Sweney
MediaGuardian, Tuesday 24 October 2006 13.49 BST

The Gay Police Association has refused to apologise for an ad which was accused of portraying Christians as responsible for most religion-fuelled homophobia, and is set to appeal against the advertising watchdog's ruling on the campaign.

The ad, which featured a copy of the Bible next to a pool of blood, ran in the Independent under the headline "In the name of the father".

Text in the ad stated: "In the past 12 months, the Gay Police Association has recorded a 74% increase in homophobic incidents, where the sole or primary motivating factor was the religious

belief of the perpetrator."

The Advertising Standards Authority received 553 complaints - from groups including Christian Watch and the Evangelical Alliance - saying that the ad was derogatory, offensive and irresponsible by implying Christians were responsible for most such homophobic incidents.

A spokesman for the GPA said the association was considering appealing against a series of rulings made by the ASA following its investigation into the ad.

In addition, the GPA denied reports that it had issued an official apology to Christians for the campaign.

"The GPA [doesn't] see any reason to apologise for an advertisement that was merely stating the facts," said Vic Codling, the national coordinator at the GPA.

The GPA said that it is considering appealing against the ASA decision on three points.

The first was with regard to the ASA's ruling that the ad would be likely to cause offence to Christian readers.

Mr Codling said that the ASA had disregarded the fact that the people who saw the ad - and upon whom, he said, the ruling should have been based - were readers of the Independent. Mr Codling claimed that the ad watchdog had instead based its ruling on an "orchestrated campaign" of complaints made by Christian groups.

The second issue the GPA was considering appealing against was with regard to the use of shocking imagery. In upholding the complaints against the images of a Bible and a pool of blood, the ASA said the imagery implied that all the homophobic incidents referred to in the ad involved physical injury.

Mr Codling said that if the entire text of the ad was taken into account, it was clear that the homophobic incidents were across the board, not just physical.
The third, and most contentious, point was the ASA's ruling that the GPA had not provided evidence substantiating their statistical claims.

Mr Codling said that it was impossible at the time of the ASA investigation to provide such evidence, because the GPA was involved in a criminal enquiry by the Metropolitan Police about the advertisement after a complaint brought by Reverend George Hargreaves. Mr Codling said that after the Crown Prosecution Service did not uphold that complaint, the GPA attempted to provide the information to the ASA, but this was not taken into account for the investigation. Mr Codling added that since the ad had run the GPA had continued to receive threatening homophobic emails from people purporting to be Christians.

On & Off Screen Representation

2009-11-18T11:20:00.000-08:00

On && Off Screen Representation Linked To My Critical Investigation && Linked Production. . .

On and off screen representation is something which would affect the way in which the audience is shown certain things. This will be an issue that I will need to consider when looking at my critical investigation and linked production. While focusing on my critical investigation, I will need to see whether the representation of teenagers is being affected because of off screen representation. For example, if black teenagers are being represented in a ngeative way, it could mean that the producers of the film may be white which would connote that the representation of the other will be taking place. This means that if the producers are white, they will be setting up a negative image of black or asian teenagers to the public. For my critical investigation, I will also need to see whether the producers of the film are mainly males. This connotes that if males are producing Hollywood films, they will be giving their prospective and how they feel that teenagers are which is most likely to be negative. This means that while looking at my critical investigation, I will need to see if mainly men are producing texts which will mean that they are giving their personal opinion on teenagers to the audience. This would mean that the on screen representation shown to the audience wil be related to how the producers think about teenagers which will be eventually what the audience will also think.

Theory That Links To My Critical Investigation & Linked Production

2009-11-12T01:59:00.000-08:00

Audience Theory . . .

* Audience theory is a basic point which needs to be considered when constructing a text or analysing it as this theory is based on what audience will be attracted to the text and how they will be targeted. This is a important point to be considered as when producing a text, the producers will need to know who they are intending to target and how they will do this. This theory links to my linked production and critical investigation as I will need to consider what type of audience is being attracted in the linked production and how they will be attracted. There are different audience theories that relate to my critical investigation and linked production.

1. 'The Hypodermic Needle Model'

- The Hypodermic Needle Model is a theory which believes that ideas and views are being injected in to the audiences mind as they are being persuaded to believe a certain view or idea. This theory was introduced in 1920's when the mass media was still fairly new and advertising had just been discovered to communicate with the audience.

- This theory relates to my critical investigation and linked production as I will be looking at the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions, exploring how and why this representation has changed over the years which means that the representation has changed over the years as the audience has been injected different views on teenagers through the use of media. For example, teenagers are now stereotyped as trouble makers and immature which was not the case over the years as now teenagers are being represented negatively in films too. This connotes that the public is being injected ideas about teenagers which has caused teenagers to be stereotyped as a threat in the publics view.

2. 'Two Step Flow'

- 'Two Step Flow' is a theory that precisely explaining the relationship between the audience and the text. This theory is from Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazer Gaudet and their finding suggest that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience straight away but is filters through "opinion leaders" and they then communicate it to their less active associates over who they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders which means that the audience is not being influenced by a direct process but a two step flow.

- This theory will link to my critical investigation and linked production as when researching for my critical investigation I will need to research different Hollywood productions which will involve looking at the way in which the audience is gaining the information and whether it is directly influencing the audience or if there is 'Two Step Flow'. This will involve me analysing how in different texts, the audience are getting the information and if they understand it instantly or they have to go through the 'Two Step Flow' theory.

New Critical Investigation & Linked Production

2009-11-12T01:49:00.000-08:00

Critical Investigation . . .

For my Critical Investigation, "I am going to be looking at the representation of teenagers in Hollywood productions, exploring how and why this representation has changed over the years." For this, I will be analyzing contemporary media texts such as Step Up (Anne Fletcher, 2006), Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004) and Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007), referring back to representations in slightly older movies such as The Hole (Nick Hamm, 2001), She’s All That (Robert Iscove, 1999) and 10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999).

Linked Production . . .

As a Linked Production to this investigation, my partners (Aqeel Ali and Gurpreet Sihat) and I will "be creating a front cover of a magzine, a contents page and features for a teen magazine." This will look at teenagers and how they are being represented.

MIGRAIN Analysis . . .

* Media Language:
- I will be analyzing the different types of camera angles used throughout teenage movies in order to see who in the world of teenagers is superior and who is inferior. This will perhaps allow me to create some sort of hierarchy in schools and will help me to understand stereotypes of teenagers in schools.
- Lighting is also going to be analyzed in each of the movies I watch. High key lighting or low key lighting on specific people or objects will show which ones have importance and which don’t.
Sound is also an important aspect to be considered when looking at movies such as High School Musical (Kenny Ortega, 2006) as the lyrics used in certain songs will help me to understand the characters and their position in schools and/or life.

* Institution:
- I will be looking into which institution produces each movie to see if I find a pattern in their work. I believe that institutions such as Walt Disney will produce more positive images of teenagers, whereas other institutions may produce a rather negative view of teenagers.

* Genre:
- As part of both my critical investigation and linked production, I will be looking at school movies such as 17 Again (Burr Steers, 2009), St. Trinian’s (Parker and Thompson, 2007) and Van Wilder (Walt Becker, 2002).
I will also be looking at drama/action movies such as Kidulthood (Menhaj Huda, 2006), Adulthood (Noel Clarke, 2008) and Bullet Boy (Saul Dibb, 2004).
Another genre I would look into is chick flicks. For this genre I would look at movies such as Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (Gurinder Chadha, 2008), Step Up (Anne Fletcher, 2006) and She’s All That (Robert Iscove, 1999).

* Representation:
- I will be looking at how stereotypes in teenage movies are shown to see whether teenagers are all represented the same or if (like adults) they are stereotyped by their ethnicity, culture and social status.
I will be looking at whether teenage females are represented as stereotypical sexual objects, and if males are represented as stereotypical thugs and whether this is the same in other aspects of the media or if it’s just in Hollywood productions.

* Audience:
- For our linked production, we will have an active audience view, which means that as an institution, we will become passive in the relationship between audience and institution. Although we will be giving information to the audience, we will have little to no control over how the audience reads the meaning from the text.
- In my critical investigation, I will be looking from the mass audience’s point of view. Teenagers may have view of Hollywood productions, and adults a very different view. The linked production will also be aimed at a mass audience as both adults will want to see whether or not stereotypes have been found true or false and teenagers will want to watch it as they are the centre of attention in this particular documentary.
- People of all social backgrounds and economic classes will be interested in our linked production as we will be exploring ALL stereotypes whether the teenager in the movie is wealthy or poor.

* Ideology:
- I will be looking into the explicit and implicit ideologies of the institution as part of my critical investigation. Newspapers may have a particular political affiliation which will make some of their articles biased to a particular view of teenagers, making their ideology explicit. However, visual representations of stereotypes of teenagers in a typical Hollywood film will be implicit.
- Patriarchy is a dominant ideology which could be promoted through Hollywood films and is therefore something I will be looking into as it’s an influence structure of practices and ideologies which favour masculine over feminine.

* Narrative:
- Throughout both my critical investigation and linked production, I will be looking into Rolande Barthe’s enigma code theory. Some movies use loads of unanswered enigma codes in order to show that a certain group of people are enigmas to society. I will be looking into whether enigma codes in Hollywood movies about teenagers are unanswered or answered and whether this has an impact on the moral panics involved with teenagers.
- I will also be looking at whether characters in teen movies follow the roles of Propp’s Spheres of Action (the hero, villain, donor, dispatcher, false hero, helper, princess and father). Deconstructing a text in this way may help lead to the discussion of ideology in the text or to think about the audience’s relationship with the text and its characters.
- Lévi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions will also be something I will look into when analyzing movies. The ideas of friend or foe, rich or poor and innocence or ‘experience’ are all stereotypical binary oppositions connected to teenagers. Are these true or false?

Current Issues and Debates . . .

As part of both my critical investigation and linked production, I will be looking into Staley Cohen’s concept of moral panics as teenagers are stereotypically associated with gangs, violence and crime. Moral panics usually an act or problem which is widely reported on in the media. Studying the representation of teenagers in movies along with making a documentary will show why these moral panics occur and whether or not teenagers are truly an issue to create moral panic.

My critical investigation will be looking into representation of teenagers and will look into whether the representation is reflective (a true reflection of society) or constructionist (a construction of the media).

Gultung and Ruge’s news values will also be a current issue/debate which I will be looking into. Certain stories have importance over others as they are more negative, personal or have shock value etc. This is important when thinking about whether or not the representations in movies are true as I will mainly be focusing on the news to find society’s representation of teenagers.

Media Theories . . .

Audience Theory is key when looking into the representation of teenagers in movies for my critical investigation. I will be looking into all types of audience theory including the Uses and Gratifications theory, Reception theory, Hypodermic Needle Model and the Two-Step Flow Theory. One of the main things to look at will be whether the audience of each movie I analyze is active or passive.

Semiotics is also a theory that I will be looking into as it involves me looking into the deeper meanings in teenage movies to really understand each character. A passive audience will only notice the denotations in the movie, but if the audience is active, the connotations in the movie will play a very influential part.

Gender theory will also play a crucial part in both my critical investigation and linked production as it involves looking into male gaze, feminism and post-feminism and queer theories. I predict that although teenage girls are shown to be objects of male gaze, their role in society will be the complete opposite.

This study fits into the contemporary media landscape as it covers an issue which is important in both society and the media. Looking into the representations of teenagers in movies and how they truly are will either help us to understand that moral panics are correct or that they aren’t.

Critical & Linked Production . . .

2009-10-31T05:27:00.000-07:00

Critical Investigation . . .

My critical investigation is to "investigate into female teenagers, looking at how far stereotypes in movies are true in today's media." This will involve looking at teenage films such as Mean Girls and others to find out how far stereotypes of females in movies are true.

Linked Production . . .

My linked production is to produce "the start of a documentary exploring teenage life at High School." This will involve seeing how teenagers behave and whether stereotypes in the media of teenagers are true.

MIGRAIN analysis on my critical investigation && linked production . . .

* Media Language:

- Close up/long shots of teenage females when wearing revealing clothing? This will connote whether females are being used as sexual objects to attract a wider audience such as males rather than just females. For this I can look at Superbad (2007) and Mean Girls (2004).

- Is there a use of high key lighting on females or low key lighting? This will show whether females do have a importance in the movie or not and is this a common pattern or not?

- The use of sound when females appear in movies, is it villain type music or soft music?This will show what roles females are usually given and if they are usually villains in teenage films or the princess that needs to be rescued.

* Ideology:

- The ideology that females are mainly used in films for sexual objects to attract a male audience and that is the role that females are mainly given in movies?. This will involve looking at teenage films such as High School Musical (2006), Mean Girls (2004) and 10 Things I Hate About You (2009).

- Females have a less importance in movies? Are they given the less important roles that involve being rescued by the heroes? This would create the ideology that females always need rescuing and are vulnerable and this will mean looking at movies and seeing whether females are rescued by the heroes in the movie.

- The ideology that female teenagers are shown as bimbos in movies and are not interested in anything else other than fashion and do not have an interest in education but want to look good. This will mean looking at teenage films such as 17 Again (2009).

* Genre:

- One of the genre of this critical investigation will be looking at films with the genre of high school and looking at how females are represented within high schools and what their roles usually involve in this genre of films. For example, I can look at 17 Again, Mean Girls ans Superbad (2007).

- Another genre of this critical investigation can be romance as I can look at teenage films and see how romance is shown in teenage films and then compare it to adult films and see the difference in how females are represented in different ages. For example, I can look at Superbad as a teenage film and then Just Like Heaven (2005) as a adult film.

- For this critical investigation, I can look at the genre drama and see whether females are involved in a lot of drama or if they are given a less important role. For example, a teenage film may have a drama of the teenage female becoming pregnant which I can look at in 17 Again.

* Representation:

- Are teenage females represented as sexual objects? This can be seen through the use of teenage females clothing in movies and whether they are mainly used as having the attractive role in the film to attract teenage males. For example, Mean Girls and Superbad.

- Are teenage females represented as needing to be rescued and need someone to rescue them at all times? I can look at if teenage females are being rescued and if this is a common pattern in teenage films.

- Are teenage females represented as not having an interest in education? Do females only care about looking good and being popular in school? For this I can look at the films Mean Girls and High School Musical and see whether females are being represented as not having an interest.

* Audience:

- A mass audience can be attracted which will mainly happen if females are shown as sexual objects as a teenage high school film does not mainly apply to males such as Mean Girls would not apply to males whereas a film such as Superbad will. The audience can be both males and females depending on the genre of the film.

- A primary audience from the ages 12 - 16. This will apply to films such as Mean Girls and High School Musical as it is more comedy and based on attracting a young audience. The secondary audience of teenage films will be 17 - 21 as this will apply to students who are either in college or university. For example, Superbad will attract this audience and so will American Pie: Band Camp (2005).

- The socio-economic class that will be attracted to these kind of films will be students mainly who can be unemployed and can b employed too. This connotes that mainly students may be attracted due to the film being related to them.

* Institution:

- Many different institutions will be looked at in order to find out this point and see whether females are being stereotyped negatively or not.

- The institutions that can be looked at are Walt Disney, Columbia Pictures and many more. This will help me compare the way that different institutions are representing teenage females.

- The institution will hold a important factor in the way that teenage females are represented due to different institutions portraying teenage females differently. For example, Walt Disney may represent teenage females as innocent whereas Columbia Pictures may represent teenage females as bimbos which shows that it depends on the institution.

* Narrative:

- Teenage films will mainly have a narrative of teenage drama so for example, this may involve teenage pregnancy, teenagers taking drugs and teenage gangs. This will look at how teenage females are being represented today which will reflect in movies.

- The narrative can also be looking at females trying to become popular within school and not have an interest in education. This will also relate to females today because of this being the case with some females today. This connotes that females are more interested in making themselves look good and become popular rather than focusing on education. For example, Mean Girls.

- Another narrative can be looking at females being sexual objects and interested in gaining a boyfriend and losing their virginity to boast to friends to gain popularity which can be shown in some movies.

How my critical investigation && linked production links to SHEP . . .

* Social - This will be a sociable point as this will be something that will be popular in the media as if there is a lot of negative stereotypes of teenage females in movies and newspapers it will relate to a moral panic and relate to people becoming worried about female teenagers.

* Historical -This will be a historical factor as it is not something that has been present in the past as there was not many underage pregnancies in the past which shows that attitudes and beliefs have changed over time as female teenagers are a issue now.

* Economical - This will be a economical factor as this is based on how it will be funded and distributed and we will be producing a documentary that is low budget and will be using low budget areas and equipment.

* Political - This will be a political factor as it is quite a important issue as if for example there are more underage pregnancies, it will result to there being underage parents which will make it a political factor.

The issues and debates that relate to my critical investigation && linked production . . .

*Representation - This is because I will be looking at how female teenagers are represented in movies and whether they are represented negatively of positively and whether the representation is realistic or not.

* News and different realities - This relates to my critical investigation as I will be able to look at newspapers in comparison to movies and see whether teenagers are being represented in the same way as in movies.

* Who controls the media: audience or producers - This issue and debate will relate to my critical investigation as it will involve looking at if female teenagers are beginning to behave the way that they are represented in movies. For example, if they are stereotyped as getting involved in teenage pregnancy, is it happening in reality which will mean that the producers are controlling the media.

The media theories that relate to my critical investigation && linked production . . .

* Gender theory - This relates to my critical investigation as I will be looking at only females and I will be able to see how females are in movies according to the gender theory. This relates to my critical investigation as is is based on theory and I will be looking at one gender.

* Audience theory - This will relate to my critical investigation as I will need to see how the audience is attracted to watch teenage female movies and whether it is because of a specific audience theory.

* Semiotics - This theory relates to my critical investigation as it involves studying the codes or languages and the signs from which they are made. This theory will relate to my critical investigation as I will need to see whether the codes shown connote something about teenage females. For example, portraying them negatively.

* Feminism and Post feminism - This theory relates to my critical investigation as I will be able to see whether females have progressed in movies and are now being given a better role and a importance in movies. This will mean that I will need to see whether feminism is taking place or post feminism.

This study fits into the contemporary media landscape because it is an issue which is recent as there is a lot of negative representation taking place in the media on teenage females such as teenage pregnancy, drug taking and etc. This would relate to many theories as it is something that is taking place now and is based on whether females are moving on from their past stereotypes and progressing in to becoming more individual and intelligent. This will make the study contemporary as it will mean that I will be looking at recent news on female teenagers and looking at how females are being stereotyped in movies.

Gender Theory

2009-10-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

Gender theory is based on the different theories on how the genders work. Judith Butler is a gender theorist who believes that "Gender is a performative. It is a doing that makes gender what it claims it is. We are not a gender, we do or perform a gender." This connotes that this theorist believes that the attitudes, beliefs and values on gender are made by the gender itself as this is what that particular gender makes it to be. This means that the representation of each gender is come up through what the specific gender makes it to be for example, females represented as weak is put across through the way females behave and they are then stereotyped as weaker compared to men because females are representing themselves to do more delicate activities such as shopping.

Another gender theorist is Mary Hawkesworth who has a few assumptions about gender. This theorist believes the following:
1. There are two and only two genders.
2. Gender is invariant.
3. Genitals are the essential signs of gender.
4. Being masculine of feminine is natural and not a matter of choice.
This shows that this theorist is completly different to Judith Butler as this theorist believes that being masculine of feminine is something that comes naturally and is not something that the genders can decide on. For example, a female being caring and vulnerable is something that comes naturally and they will not be able to change it and they will then be stereotyped as this too whereas Judith Butler believes the way a gender behaves is how they will be represented and stereotyped. This theorist also believes that there are only two genders so there cannot be a male who considers himself as both feminine and masculine. This connotes that as being masculine or feminine is natural, it connotes that this would come from family values that have been given through the family the gender has been bought up in to. For example, as childhood if the female is given dolls and "girly" things, she would then grow up to be feminine which is considered in this theory.

Another theorist that I looked at for gender theories is Oyeronke Oyewumi who has a Western view on gender and believes that bodies are superior than others. For example, men being more superior than women and this will be the case where men vs women. This connotes that this theorist states that there is a difference between male and females because males are seen as superior whereas females are not. This would include feminism as females are now trying to overcome this stereotypical view and trying to prove themselves equivalant to males and better which would overcome this theorists view. This theorist also involves looking at gender consumption as it is based on how the gender effects the consumption of the audience. For example, if males are always shown as superior and the heroes in the film, this would then be what the audience would think in reality which shows that media texts would change the audiences opinion on genders.

MEST 4: Research & Production

Final Linked Production

Critical Investigation Final Draft

Critical Investigation Penultimate Draft

Critical Investigation 2nd Draft..

Cover Design Draft 3 - Using Rajit Sihat's Feedback

Feedback from a Graphic Designer (Ranjit Sihat)

Progress Report

Action Plan

Personalised Plan of Targets and Next Steps . . .

Advertisement

Contents Page

New Front Cover

Self Assessment of Critical Investigation

Action Plan

Progress Report

Magazine Front Cover . .

Teenage Magazine Analysis

Teen Vogue Magazine Analysis

Teen Vogue Magazine Analysis

Bliss Magazine Analysis

Magazine Pitch

Progress Report

Action Plan

Self Evaluation

Media Texts For Linked Production . . .

First Draft. . .

Task 2 - Additional Reading. . .

Task 6 - Introduction & First Paragraph . . .

Task 5 - Essay Plan . . .

Task 1 - Textual Analysis. . .

Task 3 - Historical Text Analysis & Research . . .

Task 4 - Additional Web Search . . .

Bibliography - Internet Sites

Bibliography: Books

Articles Related to my Critical Investigation

Ageism Article

Articles Related To My Critical & Linked Production

My Critical Investigation && Linked Production

Media Guardian Work..!

On & Off Screen Representation

Theory That Links To My Critical Investigation & Linked Production

New Critical Investigation & Linked Production

Critical & Linked Production . . .

Gender Theory