A negative representation is better than no representation at all.
To the reference of these images shown on the front pages of the newspapers, the representations of young Londoners are all mostly shown in a negative way. All of the teenagers that are shown in these images all go under the typical stereotype of the youths in London today. For instance one of the articles that stood out the most to me is the article that has the heading of ‘Trouble in the Hood’. The images within this article were all showing negative representations of the youths of London. They are all shown wearing hoodies, blacked out covering their faces, all in gangs of 2 and more and most commonly all of them were shown causing a ‘riot ’. Within the entire article all of the teenagers are portrayed as mindless violent youths who are damaging the streets of London, calling them names such as ‘thugs & looters’ and who also look hungry for a cause but never had any of the articles stated or even suggested to why the reason of the youths of London had been rioting. This just shows how bias the media is when it comes to showing the true representations of the youth of London. It forces the readers to believe that these representations are all true especially all of the articles are showing the same representation. It makes us the readers think are the media even taking young Londoners seriously enough. Even the headline itself is a pretty sarcastic heading and shows the lack of respect they have for teenagers.
Personally, my own thoughts of all this is that it shows that the youths are shown typically like always in a negative light and that they do not have a true voice within the media no matter what. I also understand that there was nothing positive to be shown during the riots, but not all teenagers are having ‘Trouble in the hood’ most young Londoners during the riots were at home appalled by the actions of others but were still being represented in this typical negative stereotype in the news the next day.
Only one article out of all shown were showing teenagers in a positive aspect as they cleaned the streets of London the next day but were all white youths whereas the looters where manly all black and described as violent criminals. All of the police that were shown within the images were all white and described as being the authority. Also because of the fact that the media never really had true reports to why the Londoners were rioting this could make us believe that these representations are true. This can relate to Frantz Fanon theory of the racial representations as we can see how the media in this situation is reinforcing the racial separation. Within England it is well known about the conflict and tension between the urban youth and police which has been going on for numerous amounts of years. In order for the rioters to be seen as rioting for something with significance do they have to wear the white mask in order to be seen as important people of the society just rioting for justice? Maybe it wouldn’t have turned as big as it got to if they were have been taken seriously from the beginning.
The representations of young teenagers within London have only a negative representation within the media. They are never shown as the ambitious, hardworking people that they really are. For every bad that is done by a young Londoner the rest of them become placed under that representation and portrayal as if they had done that bad action personally themselves, which is never the case because everyone is different. I think all young Londoners like myself would prefer no representation what so ever than constantly have a negative image within the media which results to them constantly battling others to be taken seriously and maybe that’s even the main reason to why the riots had even started. A negative representation is the main reason to why most young Londoners are unemployed, angry and unmotivated. If these representations were to not exist then maybe the world could be a less stressful place.
