Critical Investigation Proposal
Working title: How does 'Attack the block' represent teenagers and is this typical of media portrayals?
Angle: How is this being impacted on the audience and rest of the teenagers? Is this just a moral panic?
Hypothesis: Representing young teenagers as being deviant enables them to react to this label and create more trouble
Linked production: Documentary - Investigating young people attitudes to the UK riots, challenging sterotypes, to appealn on BBC3.
MIGRAIN (Attack the Block)
The audience is more likely to be seen by the teenagers around the age of 15-34 years old of all the classes; both females and males which relates to the teenagers as the jargon is what the teenagers usually say as the dialogue was slang such as ‘bruv’ and ‘blud’ which can be quite amusing for the audience as well as target the audience. No makeup has been used on the main characters to make it seem natural. Binary opposition has been used such as ‘Bad vs. Good’ and ‘Alien vs. Human’ which implies the action drama of the movie and how the teenagers struggle fighting the aliens until at the end the alien all die. The institutions of this are that the distributors are studio canal; this movie is now on DVD for the audiences to buy, the audience can also be for the E4 viewers, Attack the block was originally aimed at the British audience and also at Nick Frost fans.
The costume that is been used throughout the movie is typical teenage clothes; this consists of hoodies, jeans, trainers and caps which is stereotyping the younger generations, which realistic and relates to the audience. Darker colours have been used which can be implied as enigma codes which creates suspense and mystery. The lighting throughout the movie is low key lighting which also links to enigma codes (Barthes) which engages the audience that something is going to happen.
The sense of the characters clothes are darker colours like black and dark blue which connotes mystery, something dangerous coming upon. The movie is placed in a council state in South London which is being shown as a typical scene where the main characters live which is why they had chosen the area to link it back to the teenagers, However the props that are been used is a baseball bat, sword, fire crackers, bikes to destroy the ‘alien/monster’, the props that have been used labels the teenagers. The soundtrack that has been used through the movie is urban genres like grime and includes the track from basement jaxx.
The genre of the movie is in fact horror; science fiction, comedy and action which targeted two types of the audience, as well as the audience’s attention as teenagers usually enjoy watching comedy and horror type movies. It tried to appeal to mainstream audience by being a comedy but also had an essential target audience who like urban British films. Teenagers are represented as thugs and hooligans roaming the street to steal from people who have been showed in the movie, there are 5 main teenage characters who are all black expect for one who is white which is a stereotype of teenagers. It represents how teenagers are nowadays socialising on the streets with their hoodies and caps.
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SHEP - There have been many films like ‘Attack the block’ but minus the horror, this can include ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘adulthood’ which links to the teenage youth and how they are being represented and stereotyped by the media, which is in fact a popular movie with the teenage youth as this can be related to them.
Issues/Debates (relating it to the study)
Representation & stereotyping of young teenagers is that people are stereotyping teenagers who are wearing hoodies as a negative aspect, they instantly imply that they are some sort of ‘gangsters’. The media’s image of teenagers and these negative reports that have been recently been published tend to focus on the idea that young people misbehave and just hung out on the streets doing nothing, in fact that is not true for many of the teenage youth as they have a lot of pressures in their lives socially and academically. Representation of teenagers is ‘hoodies, louts, scum’ which is how media demonises teenagers.
News Value of teenagers would be that the media makes the news worthy when it attracts the audience and is suitable for its needs, a news worthy story can include the ‘London Riots 2011’ where most of this was to be blamed by the young teenage youths for this sort of action.
Regulation and censorship is that the public has declares that there is excessive violence portrayed on television and that this violence ultimately negatively affects the viewer’s especially children violence in the media and its impact its incredible not to think that television couldn’t influence people’s attitudes and behaviour. However they argue that the television is creating a false sense of reality and influences not only the younger children but also influences the teenagers as to what they are being seen.
Reality TV, this can include ’16 and pregnant’ and ‘teen moms’ which is on MTV glamorizing the teen pregnancy. However teenagers copy what is being seen for example ‘Jersey shore’ is an example of what teenagers enjoy watching which might influence the way they perceive their own relationships and their understandings of the way the real world works. Teenagers are influenced by the violence as the way to deal with problems as well as they are influenced by the alcohol use on these shows which encourages the teenagers to act this way.
Moral panics are when the media starts to exaggerate stuff; this is caused by the media to the society as the media usually make the news even more exclusive by making the situation bigger than what it normally is due to the reason to get the audience’s attention, one example of moral panics is the story on young teenage getting pregnant this story would consist of couple of teens but because the media want a big story they start to exaggerate and expand their news which makes the parents worry and start to panic about their children’s safety and lives. The moral panic usually consists of socially unacceptable behaviour which can include the young teenagers looting and rioting in London 2011 which encourages the audience and viewers to stereotype the young teenagers, Teenagers are shown to be fearful, dangerous, because they are wearing hoods etc. and are associated with crime ‘a so-called "hoodie," a stereotype blamed for much of the violence’.
Theories
Semiotics – This theory is by Roland Barthes which explains the movie about what is happening, and what the audience can construct when finding out about what might or will happen.
Genre theory – genre helps the audience and the institution’s to make a decision about what they want to include in the movie and what can be linked to this, such as Attack the block has action and horror which links together.
Contemporary media Landscape
Study fits in with the idea of globalisation as most of the youth are on social networking sites which lead to current issues such as riots being easier to create.
Media Texts
Main focus will be on ‘Kidulthood’
Other media texts :
<!--[if !supportLists]-->- <!--[endif]-->Attack the block
<!--[if !supportLists]-->- <!--[endif]-->Adulthood
TV Documentaries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Yxd8DHPas – news on a teen shot (hoodies are the reason of Trayvon martins death) – wearing baseball caps is the reason you can be shot.
Books
- Youth, crime and the media: Media representation of and reaction to young people in relation to law and order
Edited by Judith Bessant and Richard Hil
-Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Representation.html?id=Vs-BdyhM9JEC&redir_esc=y)
-The representation of youth and youth culture in the novel Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes- Phyllis Wiechert
Edited by Judith Bessant and Richard Hil
-Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Representation.html?id=Vs-BdyhM9JEC&redir_esc=y)
-The representation of youth and youth culture in the novel Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes- Phyllis Wiechert
Internet Links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjWifAuTwJg – gang interview (riots)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpVb8h9Dm9s – how teenagers are being portrayed
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