FREE ESSAY ON REPRESENTATION IN TV

REPRESENTATION IN TV

Youth in Television have been portrayed in many different lights, anywhere from the
criminal to the young at heart. With their resistance to the dominant culture, many
studies have been done concerning the meaning of the political challenges to the social
formation involving investigating cultural objects and media artifacts. Historically
young people have fallen into distinct but dependent categories: youth-as-fun and
youth-as-trouble. One might ask why any of this is pertinent to the study of television.
However in the 1950's consumer boom, youth-as-fun became a major advertising strategy.
Once advertisers identified teenagers as a valuable consumer, more and more positive
images of youth became evident on TV. Photography of youth has been historically produced
out of ideological interests, constructed by new markets in an attempt to gain financial
resources young people had gained access to. Even still today it is amazing to view how
television views and portrays youth for the benefit of making a sale.
Youth-as-trouble have been seen in most aspects of the factual media such as the nightly
news. These shows have the major impact of building images, which in turn are taken as
examples of how young working- class people generally behave. This leads to an
ideological regime of images, which serve to naturalize the media construction of
youth-as-trouble (51). Images of youth-as-trouble are not only limited to news media, but
can be seen in soap operas. British soap operas serve as a forum for raising important
issues about social problems featuring teenagers with common problems. As keepers of
normalcy and common sense, these programs serve ideological interests by bringing forms
of power, i.e. the adult, to support the interests of the teenager's bodies to be against
teenage sex or acting out of control. By bringing power on the problem situations, adults
on the programs are able to control the dominant ideas of the ruling class by controlling
teenager's actions and thoughts into acting the right way. Deviant youth are represented
as answerable to institutionally sanctioned ideas, which fit the ideas of the nuclear
family. 
Youth-as-fun are most likely to be found in advertising. Knowing that young people are
most adept at reading complex visual signs, advertising aimed at young people is also the
most textually sophisticated. Success in leisure circles is contingent upon the spending
of teenagers, therefor the advert attempts to transcend the difference of class, race or
gender in order to make its appeal to the homogeneous category of youth. In masking these
categories the advert is able to play on the most important myth within capitalism, that
any individual can achieve prosperity and success with hard work, and the right attitude
to financial investment (53).
There is also another category that many advertisers use, combining the fun and
troublesome aspects, creating youth-as-trouble-as-fun. A good deal of fashion advertising
is aimed at this category to attract the average teenager that has the tendencies to act
out at times. This conventional representation of patriarchal, heterosexual masculinity
that is portrayed in advertising is evident in television and film. Famous Hollywood
heroes and action stars have had roles that meant defending society against its
undesirable elements. These images aimed at youth may seem new and imaginatively
presented; but are actually predicated on very conventional and conservative ideas about
men and women.
After reading about the representation of youth, I decided to put it my own test. While
baby-sitting the other night, I watched the children become enthralled in the
commercials, conclusive that they must have these products in order to be popular and to
fit in. By presenting commercials and teenagers in a positive light, or at least in a way
that teenagers and youth relate to, advertisers are able to pass along the dominant ideas
of the upper class (hegemony) while at the same time making an extra dollar. This
hegemonic approach accounts for why representations of youth groups appear as they are,
by linking the representations back to the social structure, which frames and produces
them.
Text Used:
Taylor, Lisa and Willis, Andrew. Media Studies: Texts, Institutions and Audiences.
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Massachusetts, 1999. Pg. 48-56. Scarlet Futch
9-27-00
Response #1 to reading
Ch. 3, Representation
Youth in Television have been portrayed in many different lights, anywhere from the
criminal to the young at heart. With their resistance to the dominant culture, many
studies have been done concerning the meaning of the political challenges to the social
formation involving investigating cultural objects and media artifacts. Historically
young people have fallen into distinct but dependent categories: youth-as-fun and
youth-as-trouble. One might ask why any of this is pertinent to the study of television.
However in the 1950's consumer boom, youth-as-fun became a major advertising strategy.
Once advertisers identified teenagers as a valuable consumer, more and more positive
images of youth became evident on TV. Photography of youth has been historically produced
out of ideological interests, constructed by new markets in an attempt to gain financial
resources young people had gained access to. Even still today it is amazing to view how
television views and portrays youth for the benefit of making a sale.
Youth-as-trouble have been seen in most aspects of the factual media such as the nightly
news. These shows have the major impact of building images, which in turn are taken as
examples of how young working- class people generally behave. This leads to an
ideological regime of images, which serve to naturalize the media construction of
youth-as-trouble (51). Images of youth-as-trouble are not only limited to news media, but
can be seen in soap operas. British soap operas serve as a forum for raising important
issues about social problems featuring teenagers with common problems. As keepers of
normalcy and common sense, these programs serve ideological interests by bringing forms
of power, i.e. the adult, to support the interests of the teenager's bodies to be against
teenage sex or acting out of control. By bringing power on the problem situations, adults
on the programs are able to control the dominant ideas of the ruling class by controlling
teenager's actions and thoughts into acting the right way. Deviant youth are represented
as answerable to institutionally sanctioned ideas, which fit the ideas of the nuclear
family. 
Youth-as-fun are most likely to be found in advertising. Knowing that young people are
most adept at reading complex visual signs, advertising aimed at young people is also the
most textually sophisticated. Success in leisure circles is contingent upon the spending
of teenagers, therefor the advert attempts to transcend the difference of class, race or
gender in order to make its appeal to the homogeneous category of youth. In masking these
categories the advert is able to play on the most important myth within capitalism, that
any individual can achieve prosperity and success with hard work, and the right attitude
to financial investment (53).
There is also another category that many advertisers use, combining the fun and
troublesome aspects, creating youth-as-trouble-as-fun. A good deal of fashion advertising
is aimed at this category to attract the average teenager that has the tendencies to act
out at times. This conventional representation of patriarchal, heterosexual masculinity
that is portrayed in advertising is evident in television and film. Famous Hollywood
heroes and action stars have had roles that meant defending society against its
undesirable elements. These images aimed at youth may seem new and imaginatively
presented; but are actually predicated on very conventional and conservative ideas about
men and women.
After reading about the representation of youth, I decided to put it my own test. While
baby-sitting the other night, I watched the children become enthralled in the
commercials, conclusive that they must have these products in order to be popular and to
fit in. By presenting commercials and teenagers in a positive light, or at least in a way
that teenagers and youth relate to, advertisers are able to pass along the dominant ideas
of the upper class (hegemony) while at the same time making an extra dollar. This
hegemonic approach accounts for why representations of youth groups appear as they are,
by linking the representations back to the social structure, which frames and produces
them.
Text Used:
Taylor, Lisa and Willis, Andrew. Media Studies: Texts, Institutions and Audiences.
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Massachusetts, 1999. Pg. 48-56. 
Bibliography
Taylor, Lisa and Willis, Andrew. Media Studies: Texts, Institutions and Audiences.
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Massachusetts, 1999. Pg. 48-56.