250 word summary.

To what extent does news media create moral panic and represent teenagers in a negative way that the public should fear? 

From our discussion in class today, what we understood about our question was that teenagers are not only seen in a positive way but are mostly portrayed in a very negative way in society. Language used such as "British youths are the most unpleasant and violent in the world” makes the audience react negatively overall towards the younger generation of the youths of Britain. Words such as ‘most unpleasant’ and ‘violent’ connote a sense of chaos highlighting teenagers overall to be terrible people.

 However in juxtaposition to that, biased opinions from teens saying that they are not always bad people relates to Perkins theory stating that there is some element of truth in a stereotype made, in this instance, as teenagers may be good, helpful people, they may also be very unpleasant.

Statements made such as “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage” shows how overall, in the media, how teenagers are mostly represented in a very negative way. Furthermore, in opposition to the negative coverage made in the media, youth clubs and Television institutions such as Disney show people that teenagers are actually good people.

For example, Disney shows such as The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and That’s So Raven have morals at the end of them, teaching the younger generation of children, who watch Disney shows such as these, good morals and how to be better people; planning ahead for the future.

Different audiences would react in different ways to statements made in the media. If the older, orthodox, current generation saw something on television such as the Ealing riots for example, then they would think that all young people living in Britain who wear hoods would be so called ‘Hood-Rats’ and from this, stereotypes would grow either giving British youth a good or a bad representation.

Overall teenagers are represented in a negative way and have been labelled as deviant gaining an undesirable repute in society today.