Do Kidulthood and Fish Tank provide a realistic representation of youth?

“Media appear to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it” (Stuart Hall), media messages/information are produced, circulated and consumed, therefore, they are decoded in a certain way and encoded in a certain way. It could be suggested that through Stuart Halls encoding/decoding, Kidulthood and Fish Tank are constructed and stereotyped.
For example, in Kidulthood, youths are represented negatively which can be both realistic and constructed. The representation of youths is highly stereotyped in Kidulthood as it shows that youths are bullies, they blackmail, are aggressive, are carefree, very explicit, drug takers, drinkers etc…These stereotypes do occur within youths but they are highly exaggerated in the film as many of these youths act this way. Kidulthood shows many mixes of race and lower classed families with mainly one parent living with the youth.
In Kidulthood there is one type of subculture, but within that subculture involves different social groups. These social groups have certain things in common, for example, drugs, alcohol, partying, acts of violence, arguments, shopping, wooing girls etc... In Kidulthood teenagers are showed in a negative stereotypical representation due to the events that occur in the film. Through binary oppositions of age/gender the social groups create their collective identity. 

“Media representations are complex, not simple and straightforward”, we need to interact with the others or the media in order to form our identity (Richard Jenkins).
For example, in Fish Tank, the main character struggles to form her identity and is seen to be very lonely and disturbed. Fish Tank was filmed around a rundown estate, it shows that the main character is a big bipolar, a rebel and wants attention. It shows the girl struggles to find her identity and where she belongs, therefore, suggests that at a stage in life, teenagers, struggle to form their identity.

“Identity is complicated” (David Guantlett), for example, in both Kidulthood and Fishtank, the main characters struggle to find their identity, so instead they just act rebellious to seek attention which leads to a negative representation.
 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.

In both Kidulthood and Fish Tank an urban, low classed environment is used, therefore, it shows that the youths that are lower classed and live in poor environments are negatively represented as drug abusers and violent individuals. This I believe is a wrong representation of youths in poor environments as youths and adults around the world in middle classed and even high classed environments act the same way. Therefore, I believe that Kidulthood and Fish Tank do not provide a realistic representation of youths around the world, however, it does provide realism on how youths act within certain subcultures or social groups, however, this cannot be generalised with other youths.