How are young people stereotyped in the media?

Laziness - I'd say that a lot of adults believe the younger generation to be lazy/idle because of the recent developments in technology that makes it easier to stay at home as apposed to going out with friends.

Stanley Hurst - “Adolescence is inherently a time of storm & stress when all young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioural upheaval, before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood." Hall also argued that:
1. The common mood of teenagers is a state of depression.
2. Criminal activity increases between the ages of 12 & 24.
3. Young people are extreme and need excitement; “Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in; sex, drink or drugs.”

Osgerby goes onto argue that; “The portrayal of youth is not entirely pessimistic,” he argues that “Mixed metaphors” appear when analysing the representation of youth. He claims; “Dual stereotyping of youth,” creates these mixed metaphors that Dick Hebdige (1988) termed; “Youth as fun,” and “Youth as trouble maker.”

Skins clip

In will be analysing this five minute clip of Skins, detailing whether this clip adheres to any theories about how youth are represented in the media. It is common knowledge that young people are the most discriminated against in the media, this clip both adheres to and opposes some common stereotypes about youths in this day and age.

The starting credits straight-away display to us some of the stereotypes of youths and adheres to what Dick Hebdige said, he described “Youth as fun” and “Youth as trouble makers”. It adheres to this because the non-diagetic music in the opening credits is upbeat and happy (“youth as fun”) but the pictures are of kids doing drugs, drinking and partying (“youth as trouble makers”). It also adheres to but at the same time opposes Stanley Hurst’s theory. He stated that young people must have excitement and seek this out in sex, drinks and drugs but he also stated that the common mood of teenagers is depression. In my opinion, the credits oppose his point about depression because the majority of the youths in this clip look like they’re having a good time, even if their lives are tainted with profanity, hence why it adheres to what he said about youths seeking out excitement in sex, drugs and alcohol.

The first camera shot that we see is an extreme close-up of what seems to be the main character, it then zooms out into a medium shot of him under the covers of his bed. The design of the mattress doesn’t exactly make the youth of today look very good because the design of his sheets are two naked people, again adhering to Stanley Hurst’s theory which is basically that youths like sex, drugs and alcohol. There is a common stereotype that youths are lazy, the start of this clip opposes this. This is due to the fact that his alarm is going off but he is already awake, unlike later in the clip where the main character rings his friend who is laid asleep in bed not answering phone because he can’t be bothered, this character (who I believe is called Sid) adheres more to the stereotype that youths are lazy.