1. Youth Collective Identity G325

2. Objective: Explore Youth as a concept and its representation in media texts

3. Study of Youth causes problems • Youth as biological and organically founded category OR as a social construct? • Classification of persons in social categories • Demarcation of class, race, gender etc • Questions of consumption • Questions of resistance Why are these problematic?

4. Historical context • Pre- modern capitalism Youth didnt exist • Child to adult marked by rites of passage i.e. work/marriage etc • Emergence of specialised work market meant extra training was needed – more go to uni etc • Growing middle class gives spare cash • A new span of time ‘Youth’ emerges and begins to be seen as a time of structured irresponsibility

5. Youth - as a cultural classification • Cultural not biological classification • Meaning shifts over time & place • Youth turns into a discourse surrounding identity, representation, style and difference

6. Trouble and Fun • Split in the way Youth is represented in traditional and contemporary texts Motorbike Gangs Football Hooligans Drug takers Vandals Gangs Consumers of fashion and leisure Comodification of youth Vilification of youth

7. Sub-Cultures • Such as??? • Sub culture is classification by theorists (think genre) • Sub has negative connotations - different - away from the mass - away from the comodification of youth - easy representation of characters for texts

8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmyOIbeDTbk • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJAeb0wiQjA • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH-6NHqvlp4 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-wxXsG12bo

9. Task • Create a poster that explores the difference in youth representations between today and yesteryear in British media texts • Ensure you refer to areas discussed already • Refer to gender and class as well