Media Representation Of Teenagers Essay

Historically representations of teenagers have been varied in the media but especially more within recent years teenagers have been represented more negatively. From the British television drama website (www.itvdrama.blogspot.com ) I was able to find out that in the past teenagers were represented as obedient, conforming young people who were un-sexualized and unsusceptible to the negatives of the world. It stated that as time progressed the representation of teenagers became more realistic. They became louder, expressive, individual, outgoing and sexually aware. Teenagers are seen as always being up to no good and just causing trouble and being involved in crime, sexual activity and drugs. Especially in British media, teenagers are represented as being apart of gangs and being labelled ‘yobs’. Steven Drizen states on the website www.thinkexist.com, “The overwhelming majority of juveniles
Bethany found these and swallowed one and she ended up in intensive care. Bethany made a full recovery and again David was let off with a warning. This helps reinforce the view that teenagers are involved in crime. So the media’s representation of teenagers is reinforced through this character David Platt. A real life example of an issue such as this is the case of Brain Harvey from pop band ‘East 17’; Harvey revealed that he enjoyed taking the drug ‘ecstasy’. This caused a widespread moral panic as people were concerned over the influence of pop stars on the youth of today and were concerned that this was the activities that today’s youth are participating in. But really only small minorities of teenagers are involved in these activities. So in ‘Coronation Street’ the producers are not giving an accurate reflection of what the youth of today are like. However when a real life example of teenage anti social behavior occurs the media think they have got the reflection of youth today