Wednesday, October 3, 2012

young people and the impacts of media constructions


There is a competing paradigm in the media’s representation of youth.  When it markets beauty products for example, it emphasises the importance of looking and being youthful. However when it markets young people as a group, the media generally perpetuate negative stereotypes of young people. This paper will critically analyse a media article by looking at theoretical aspects of young people that could be applied. It will consider the tone of the article and   also consider the impacts that these stereotypes and theoretical perspectives have on young people. It will also consider an alternative portrayal that the media article could take on  young people.

The media article chosen comes from the Gloucestershire Echo in the UK. It labels a teenage boy as a feral. This is similar to a recent string of media reports done by channel Seven’s Today Tonight program (Today Tonight, 2012).  The article from the Gloucestershire Echo uses words and statements like ‘Feral ‘and ‘These crimes are made even more serious by the fact that you are 12 and 16’ (Gloucestershire Echo, 2012).   Young people are often perceived by the media in a negative light rather than as competent citizens (Checkoway et al, 2003).  The use of the language like that stated above shows newspaper’s representation of young people as portraying a position or perspective through language (Simpson, 1993).   The problem is that media perspectives and representations like this one can quickly filter into the political and public domain (Omaji, 2003).   Journalistic ethics pride themselves on fair and balanced accounts (Ward, 2009). This article however lacks some details about social factors that can affect young people’s offending behavior, including such factors as family issues, ethnic background, mental illness, drug use and intellectual capacity (White & Wyn, 2008).  This information may provide a better background to what was happening with that young person at that particular time and there are many theories to account for young people committing crimes.

A sociological theory that can be applied throughout this news article is that of Merton’s theory of deviance.  Merton argues that deviance is caused by the interplay between society structure and culture. It builds on and critiques the idea of functionalism (Blackman, 2007).  The key ideas that functionalism asserts is there are just some things that people need to do to survive, such as getting a good education (source).  Merton shared these views but also added that sometimes structures may not always be able to fulfill the needs of the person causing the problem to arise (Blackman, 2007; York & Marcus, 2009). Give an eg of such problems (outside of the article)  to demonstrate your understanding of this point.  The media article has some clear parallels with Merton’s theory as it portrays the clash of ideals between the dominant ideology of the establishment and the young person as rebelling against society through the criminal acts as is evident in the magistrate’s comment  "A charge of an offence such as this would take many respectable people's breath away...” yes, the key issue here is the use of the word respectable – unpack that word to give your argument more strength.

This media article quite clearly labels the young people in the article as ‘Ferals’. However due to the lack of academic resources it is hard to construct a theoretically based image of what a feral is. The only definition available describes the feral subculture as ‘sporting ‘a shaved head with crusty hair out the back, kinda anti-intellectual’ Good quote  J (Edwards & Mercer, 2008).  This raises the idea that the newspaper is trying to explain their  actions through the subculture that they have assigned them.  Subcultures can be formed on the basis of music and recreational activities  (White & Wyn, 2008).  In some instances certain subcultures can be problematised (Carrington, 2009). This was evident in post war Britain when subcultures between young people became highly visible which in turn created a moral panic and in turn public space became a contested area of young people’s subcultures (teddy boys) and police (Carrington, 2009).  The media article makes reference to a sub-cultural group ‘ferals’and paints the picture of the young person as a transient drifter ‘it seems like he lives a feral lifestyle in the sense that he has not been staying at home’.  The Newspaper questions his lifestyle and labels it within a particular sub cultural group ‘feral’. Some academic literature suggests that feral subculture is based on peoples’ standing in the labour market, political views and looks (Edwards & Mercer, 2008; Gleder, 2007; John, 1999). There is a lack of research in this field that links the feral subculture with criminal activity. It would seem that the newspaper used subculture as way of defining the young person as a deviant and used language to portray them and a particular subculture in a certain perspective (Simpson, 1993).  This is good, but could be restructured to make your point clearer. It jumps around a bit and therefore becomes a bit repetitive.

Stories like these do not only have an impact on individual young people but can have far wider effects on them as a group. As mentioned above, Omaji (2003) explains that media bias can quickly filter into political and public domain. This can impact on young people greatly as media bias and public opinion can filter into the political arena and can affect policy and legislation that is used to police young people. This is shown by moves towards things such as naming and shaming and mandatory sentencing rather than other options such as more socially focused polices such as ….(Omaji, 2003).  Adams (as cited in Omaji 2003, p. 3-4) comments that he is disgusted that policies such as those mentioned above are being used more often and quotes the bible in saying what ever happened to “love your enemy”.


Negative labels and stereotypes are formed when we consistently associate them with certain traits and preconceived ideas (Bernburg & Krohn, 2003).  Negative labels and stereotypes such as those within the media article can alter young people’s self concepts of who they are (Anderson & Schoen, 1985).  Labelling and stereotyping young people can also substantially alter a young person’s life course especially if they have been labelled as deviant. This reduces opportunities for a normal life in the functional sense (Bernburg & Krohn, 2003).  Bernburg and Krohn (2003) also discuss that labeling and stereotyping have been indirectly linked to negative behaviour because of the opportunities missed due to the label or stereotype. Good, now link it back to your article – to what extent might labeling have played a part for these young people?

One of the issues this article ignored was the social factors that could have been impacting on the young person’s behavior.  As mentioned above the article did not discuss any of the social factors that can impact on young person’s offending behaviors (White & Wyn, 2008). In order to have a balanced argument these factors should have been included.  There is evidence to support the family and community environments impacting on the offending behavior. Andrews & Bonitas (2010) longitudinal studies found there is a greater likelihood for young people being involved in criminal activity if their families are involved in crime.  The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) supports the idea of investing in socio-economic status of communities but also takes a functionalist view of assisting young people to grow out of their offending behaviors explain further …(Richards, 2011).  Studies of young person’s behaviour have tended to focus on the individual rather than broader society wide aspects (Rutter, Giller & Hagell 1998).  This goes against White and Wyn’s (2008) notion of looking at young people and crime in a holistic manner. Some of the issues that the article could have looked at included the socio-economic status of person, family issues and drug use (White & Wyn, 2008; Auther, 2005).

The second point that could be argued is that this media representation is not a true reflection of young people and further analyses that the media portrayals of young people such as this can affect attitudes, beliefs and actions of young people and adults (Checkoway et al, 2003). This has been demonstrated in the United States where studies found New York Times coverage over represented young people’s involvement in crime at a time when crime rates for young people were falling (Figueroa et al, as cited in Checkoway et al, 2003).  This study showed that peoples’ attitudes reflected media coverage and a majority of Americans believed that the youth crime rate was on the rise (Figueroa et al, as cited in Checkoway et al, 2003).  The article focuses on the young peoples’ behaviour but does not go to any lengths to tell readers that the UK has successful early intervention programs that has seen crime rates and recidivism of young people at their lowest levels  a good point to make – links well with discussion above re NY Times article. (Ashford, 2007).  This media article does not attempt to put youth crime into perspective White and Wyn (2008) state when young people are charged with an offense it usually is for offenses like riding a train without a ticket, noise complaints and destruction of property. As explained by Simpson (1993) this media article uses language to state a point or position but when looking at an article like this it seems that it is based on community ideologies rather than based on academic evidence.  These last two points while good need to be examined further to ensure they don’t read like they were just added at the end.

This essay has considered how the article has constructed an image of young people. It then used ideas from different theoretical perspectives to describe young people and their actions. It then looked at the impacts that these perspectives can have on young people as a group and as an individual. Finally it produced an alternative view of young people. Overall the article emphasizes a representation of young people to perpetuate society’s stereotypes through language which presents a negative connotation to society of an already marginalised group.












Reference list


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