Looking at two types of Media, describe the ways in which a particular group of people are collectively represented or provided for, using specific examples to support your response.

As time has progressed, the media has increasingly portrayed youth in a negative light and as a danger to society. The mass media uses their power of influence to control our opinions with exaggerated portrayals which makes the general public create a stereotypical view of all youths regardless of the fact that there are only a small number of outliers that truly match these represnetations. Messages can be delivered through text, but also through the use of films. Kidulthood, directed by Noel Clarke in 2006 is a perfect example of the media delivering messages to the public. Youths as a collective identity are represented in the film as being sexually promiscuous, violent, rude and disrespectful. This combined with the fact that Noel Clarke himself said he was trying to give a realistic impression of youths in London and that he grew up in these surroundings can easily convince the audiences that this is how all youths behave. This representation of youth started long before Kidulthood however. In 1955, Rebel without a cause portrayed the same sort of messages that youth are rebellious. Although much less extreme, it still showed actions which back then would have been frowned upon such as undoing top buttons, driving reckless, getting arrested and more.

The London riots is another good example of the media representing youths in a negative light. The media made it seem as if all of the rioters and looters were youths when in fact many were adults. They used clothing to associate certain people with the stereotype that they are dangerous. Many people during the riots wore hoodies and balaclavas to hide their identities which is now associated with violence. This is now a way youths can find their collective identities by simply wearing certain types of clothing as they will be seen by the general public to be part of a gang when the case might simply be they are cold. Web 2.0 has been very effective at helping youths create their collective identities. During the London 2011 Riots, looters used social media such as facebook and twitter to post pictures of the items they looted. They also used these webistes to communicate and co-ordinate new attacks. Henri Jenkins said 'teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles, adding photos and posting on each other's walls, these activities can also be means for teens to construct and experiment with their identity'. Youths use forms of social media to express their opinions because it is much more difficult for adults to restrict their activities as often they do not even understand how such things work.

Web 2.0 also helped the London Riots spread quicker. In 1981, the Brixton riots was a similar case except it was much smaller scale because the information could only be spread by word of mouth whereas with the London Riots it escalated to a point where the government wanted to shut down twitter and blackberry messenger (unsuccessfully).

With regards to the future, it is unlikely that any time soon youths will be relinquished of their stereotypical view. In fact, it is likely to get worse as youths are now seeming to embrace their stereotypical representations and are genuinely riding around on bmx bikes wearing hoodies with pitbulls, which creates a moral panic within the general public. To conclude, youths use web 2.0 to form their collective identities and until the media stops with the stereotypes, youths will continue to rebel against society.