Noel Clarke

What does Noel Clarke/the Interviewer say about binary oppositions?

The interviewer says Grannies may still think of him as Doctor Who's Mickey, Billie Piper's screen boyfriend who got eaten by a wheelie bin, but 32-year-old actor Noel Clarke has other, less cuddly talents.
Noel Clarke says 'Urban' being a euphemism for an unflinching depiction of under-age sex, drug-taking and fatal violence in a gun-riddled London that would have granny trembling behind the sofa.

What was the films purpose?

To show how that from negativity, what positive aspects arise from it and newspapers show focus on how things could change rather than just sensationalising things that are happening, or saying movies are trying to glamorise them, then we could be in a better position and to give young people opportunities to do things rather than do something negative.

 

How does it compare to films ftrom a different time period?

It shows the unflinching depiction of under-age sex, drug-taking and fatal violence in a gun-riddled London in the modern society.

 

How do music videos create a sense of collective identity?

“We need to replace all of these sexualised images with ones showing girls in positive settings” (Dr Eileen Zurbriggen). For example, the BBC News article called Sexualisation ‘harms’ young girls, states how the media portrays young women as sex objects, which goes on to harm girls mental and physical health. A good example of this is music videos, stars such as Rihanna has a certain ideology which allows her to have a hegemonic status towards society. Many girls aspire to be like Rihanna by wearing the clothes she wears, repeating her explicit lyrics and maybe even starving themselves to get a figure like hers. Rihanna represents herself as a sexual object by certain clothes she wears and her lyrics such as ‘Sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it”. Through stars and their music videos, many people construct and create their collective identity as they are highly influenced by their music and persona. Jacques Lacan’s ‘Mirror Stage’ helps us to further understand how the sense of collective identity is created, as this is how people start to develop their identity as they reflect behaviour they see, so they imitate behaviour that they may see rewarding, for example, Nicki Minaj dressing sexually and getting all the boys. This relates back to sexualisation as a person’s value comes only from her or his sexual appeal or behaviour, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is portrayed purely as a sex object.

“A star is an image constructed from a range of materials” (Richard Dyer), the image that the star creates and constructs can give a negative representation to society. As there are many people that construct their collective identity through the media, it can give a moral panic to society as there are many articles on how rappers have gone prison over gang wars or drugs. As this is how the star is constructed fans may imitate the behaviour and also believe it may be ‘cool’ to take drugs to fit in. Usually in the music videos stars allow themselves to represent their collective identity and as music videos have become less regulated and so have websites, this allows people to go to the extremes of representing themselves. Music Videos are also now globalised, therefore, people around the world can view it and construct part their collective identity from it. As David Buckingham states a focus on identity requires us to play closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups. Adolescence is a distinctive stage with a beginning and an end, a gradual progression to adulthood. The past is different for males and females and the dilemma is with what you will become. An adolescences progression is about “becoming” rather than “being”. Adolescence is about what you will become – regarding future occupations and relationships.
Web 2.0 has no regulations and therefore allows people to communicate and interact freely with one another. Music videos link with the Web 2.0 as they are constantly shared over Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc... Through the Web 2.0 people create and construct their collective identity as Henry Jenkins state “how teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online”.

Contemporary music videos have the technology and fewer regulations than historical music videos. Also contemporary representations are more explicit and lyrical raw than historical representations in music videos, for example, here we can juxtapose Michael Jackson with Lil Wayne and how they differ from lyrics and music videos. Michael Jackson was seen to representing positively in society whilst Lil Wayne is seen to represent negatively with society. Historical counterculture representations such as the Anarchy can also be juxtaposed with contemporary representations.

“Media representations are complex, not simple and straightforward”. How far do you agree with this statement in relation to the collective group that you have studied?

Media representations are complex, not simple and straightforward’, media appear to reflect identity, whilst in fact they construct it (Stuart Hall).

For example, in the London Riots the media tabloids and broadsheets created and further constructed an ideology for youths for society. This led to a negative and stereotypical view of youths as loud, reckless thugs that downgrade society. Lives were lost. “Parents had to carry children out of burning homes, leaving a lifetime of possessions behind to be destroyed" this quote on The Independent gives a moral panic to society as they are threatened by what occurred. As the News showed varies clips of teenagers destroying properties and starting fires, this caused the media and society to construct a stereotype of teenager’s collective identities. However, media representations are complex as there have been many articles about teenagers that have done good for society, thus, it juxtaposes with the negative representations.

‘A star is an image constructed from a range of materials’ (Richard Dyer 1979). Stars such as Rihanna, constructs a hegemonic view, as her music videos allow her to construct and create her collective identity and persona through her lyrics, actions and clothing.  Rihanna subverts to the stereotypical views of women, and shows her independence through her music videos. Many fans of Rihanna have created a subculture where they follow her independent carefree ways, which represents youths in a negative way. Rihannas sexual outfits and lyrics cause a dissonance towards society and media as it can cause moral panic to young mothers. Lyrics from one of her recent music videos are ‘Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it’ this is seen to be obtrusive in society, as it is very explicit and sexual and many young girls sing this song and don’t know the meaning to it. Therefore, it states that stars are allowed to create and construct their representations in the media through many different things that are seen to be influential to others; this may cause a negative or positive representation towards youths.

We need to interact in order to form our identity with other people or with the media (Richard Jenkins). Youth interactions can cause a negative or positive representation depending on their actions; therefore, it makes it very complex for media to represent youths. However, it has been noted that there are many negative representations of youths as one of ‘The Guardian’ articles by John Naughton on 12^th November explains how youths don’t like the media as the article is about “Young people don’t like us. Who can blame them” in this article it explain how media have constantly represented youths in a negative representation, therefore, youths have started to cause a dissonance with the media. Therefore, youth interaction allows the media to represent youths in an ideological representation towards society. The way youths interact with each other allows them to create their collective identity, one way they do this, is through the many uses of communication, mainly through the interaction with Web 2.0 which has no regulations. Social networking companies such Facebook, Twitter, MSN etc… have no regulations therefore, it allows people to interact freely with each other, creating and constructing their own collective identity. Through Web 2.0 youths create their own representations for themselves, this allows the media to exploit youths and give them negative representations, for example, during the London Riots, many youths used Web 2.0 to communicate with each other about the riots, and due to some comments that may have been sent through twitter and Facebook that linked with the London Riots, youths had got prison sentences from it, which creates moral panic for families with young children.

A focus on identity and representation requires us to play closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups.

‘Sexualisation harms young girls’, the media’s portrayal of young women as sex objects harms girls mental and physical health (BBC News). Sexualisation is said to lead to lack of confidence with girl’s bodies as well as depression and eating disorders. This creates a negative representation for women; however, it is more complex then that, as it doesn’t always cause problems for other women. Sexualisation doesn’t necessarily harm girls, but can motivate them to be more like the sexualised model, therefore, it is showing that at a young age girls are exposed to sexual images of role models and may inspire to be like them. “We need to replace all of these sexualised images with ones showing girls in positive settings – one that show the uniqueness and competence of girls” – Dr Eileen Zurbriggen

This also links with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, as girls may seem they need to improve their social needs and self esteem in order improve their representation for people to notice them more. This would negatively represent girls in the media, and can cause uproar in society.

The Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that youths socially accept the messages they receive through the media and accept it. For example, they may see their role models or music stars smoke weed, or act sexual and believe that it is socially acceptable to act this way, therefore, they begin to act this way.

I believe that representations of youths are very complicated and complex as there are many positive and negative aspects to the representation of youth through media. However, I do believe that the media represent youth in a more negative way than positive. There are many different aspects when considering the representation of youths in the media, as many different factors effect the representations for example, environment, celebrities, peer influence, past experiences etc….