hegemonic view of Young people/teenagers

Hegemonic: ruling or dominant in a political or social context

"Teenagers with smartphones have more sex than those with ordinary mobiles, according to a new report."  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225661/Teenagers-smart-phones-sex-access-internet.html#ixzz2kbyxkEVV 

"Whether it is Snapchat or the 20m-times-downloaded Android and iOS version of BlackBerry Messenger, there’s no disputing that Facebook is feeling the pressure from other platforms" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/10416903/Facebooks-rebellious-teenagers.html


"WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the UK and on half the country's iPhones, according to Mobile Marketing Magazine, has more than 350 million monthly active users globally. That makes it the biggest messaging app in the world by users, with even more active users thansocial media darling Twitter, which counts 218 million. About 90% of the population of Brazil uses messaging apps, three-quarters of Russians, and half of Britons, according to mobile consultancy Tyntec. WhatsApp alone is on more than 95% of all smartphones in Spain. The power users and early adopters of these apps, the ones you're most likely to see tapping their thumbs over a tiny screen, are under 25." http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/10/teenagers-messenger-apps-facebook-exodus


"Police data reveals 1,892 London teenagers committed violence against their own parents between 2009 and 2010" http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/03/parents-fear-violent-teenagers-support

"More than 3,000 teenagers are killed every year across America in car crashes caused by texting while driving compared to 2,700 from drink driving." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2322393/Texting-wheel-kills-teenagers-year-drink-driving-study-reveals.html


"Teenagers who text more than 100 times a day tend to be shallow, image-obsessed and driven by wealth." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2416612/Are-mobile-phones-causing-teenagers-turn-criminal-Frequent-texting-linked-antisocial-behaviour.html#ixzz2kc08WTpZ 


The hegemonic view of teenagers across "The Daily Mail", "The Telegraph" and "The Guardian" portray quite negative views of teenagers within society, most linking to social networking sites and their mobile phones. For exmaple, "Teenagers who text more than 100 times a day tend to be shallow, image-obsessed and driven by wealth." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2416612/Are-mobile-phones-causing-teenagers-turn-criminal-Frequent-texting-linked-antisocial-behaviour.html#ixzz2kc08WTpZ. Some articles do see teenagers in a positive light saying that they're only "growing up" and therefore being antisocial and using their phones constantly, they are being antisocial even though they are building their friendship over the phone and in person when possible. But the majority of articles stated that teenagers and social networks or using of their phones are negative, they cause more deaths, anti-social behaviour and violence as well as racism and bullying in some cases.

300 word blogpost on the opening of 'Top Boy' using content analysis

Within the opening of ‘Top Boy’ we see several positive and negative representations of youthful people portrayed by the characters. E.g. some of the negatives were the clothing seen in the scenes, the teenagers had ties hanging down and shirts top buttons undone therefore portraying a more scruffy look rather than representing themselves and their school in a more formal and professional matter. Some may argue that it’s possibly because of the teenagers have just finished a long day at school. But even if that is the case they are still representing the school and themselves and obviously not looking professional and formal doesn’t portray a positive image. However, some representations of the teens were positive e.g. the teenagers reach home and one was looking for his mother and was worried about her and therefore stayed in and waited for her along with his friend who decided to keep his friend company.

According to Gerbner’s cultivation theory, the more an audience watch or “live” in a TV world the more they are likely to believe the representations of that world. E.g. in Top Boy there are scenes of drug dealing and foul language being used by the characters portraying a negative representation and possibly dangerous representation, the male selling drugs is a black male, this could therefore make audiences fall into a trap of falsely believing the stereotypical view portrayed on TV of black males. Audiences would believe Alvarados four stereotypes of black people in the media, most likely believing the “dangerous” stereotype, they would believe that Perkins was correct about how some elements of stereotypes are true. Even if the stereotypes, according to Medhurst, is purely for quick identification of characters for audiences. Audiences may end up avoiding certain people falsely believing the stereotype or may end up finding comfort around a certain stereotype.