Issues raised in the film Sket.

Issues raised:

• Gang Culture (Most of the film shows this to some extent, seeing as how there's a girl gang as the main focus).
• Drug Use ( That bit where they're smoking stuff from the bottle).
• Excessive violence (i.e. The guy who gets kicked and beat up with a pipe).

Language that identifies the youth culture in the film:

• Excessive use of curse words such as 'fuck'.

Did Sket live up to my expectations?

I thought Sket didn't exactly live up to my expectations, although it did meet one of my preconceptions. The preconception that it met was that it was in an inner city and that there were some girls that hit things with metal poles (even though that was only in one scene). The film itself seemed rushed, especially the ending. I couldn't relate to anything, especially the main characters. Even the scene where the sister of the main character dies, and I wasn't even moved by that at all. The ending seemed rushed with a the black guy finally getting killed, and one of the girls getting stabbed. The main character goes to see her dad, and then the end credits roll, that's all. It all just seems really rushed.

Sket Preconceptions Task

1. There appears to be girls who are attacking something that we can't see, as it is below the image frame. At the front is a girl with a bat who seems to be doing the most damage to whatever it is they are attacking. Whilst the girls behind just seem to be stamping on things, or possibly in the act of spitting on something. The colours of the poster are typical feminine colours such as pink and red, which reflects the characters depicted, given that they are feminine.

2. Characters - They seem to be violent, possibly abusive, and may go looking for trouble. They are most likely rarely seen apart from one another, and most likely move about in a group.

Setting - The setting will most likely take place in some inner city, as the clothes the characters are wearing are typically associated with people who live in those sorts of areas.

Story - The story is most likely a gang film, possibly focusing on a girl gang. They will most likely go about attacking other gangs, and making trouble.

3. It suggests these things by putting the girls together in a group (simulating a gang like group). The clothes they wear should strike a chord with people who see that sort of clothing on a regular basis, and should be able to deduce the most likely location for the film. The story is only easy to guess if you have seem other gang based films, if this is the case, then the plot becomes fairly easy to guess, as most gang films have similar plotlines, with a few examples.

4. I feel that the way the girls are represented in the poster contradicts the way females are usually shown in posters. They are shown to be a lot more independent, free from males and their ways (this is due to the lack of males on the poster). They are shown to be much more violent than most women are shown to be on posters, most women are usually there to look good, and draw attention to the poster. Whereas in this poster the women seem to look more scary than anything else, and would most likely push people away from the poster, as opposed to drawing them in.

Plan B Activity

1. I believe that the lyrics try to challenge the negative views of the youth subculture. It highlights the views we have, such as they live off government benefits, and avoid paying tax and other things. However even though it points these things out to us, and may seem like it is reaffirming our negative view, the lyrics then seem to give reasons for why these things come about e.g. community centers closing down. However despite the lyrics challenging our views on youths, the video shows us exactly what we think of them e.g. violent, thieves etc.

2. Examples in the video that show how we perceive youth are as follows:
- They are shown looting TV's and trainers.
-They are seen violently kicking and punching people, including police.
-They are seen swearing, mainly sticking up their middle fingers.

3. There is one occasion that I noticed. This was when a police officer is seen punching a member of a crowd for no disclosed reason. I see this as an abuse of power, although there is the possibility that it is out of context, and is made to look like an abuse of power.

4. I believe he was trying to show the audiences that just because we perceive youths as thugs, doesn't mean that all of them are. We stereotype them so much based on where they live, how they dress,

5.

London Riots Case Study Write Up

Overview of Contemporary Case Study
1. The context of the riots is that it started with a protest against the shooting of a man named Mark Duggan. During the protest, a few police cars other vehicles such as busses, were set alight. As the days progressed, people seemed to take advantage of the lack of law enforcement, and proceeded to invade various areas of London. From then onwards the situation seemed to spiral out of control, with more and more people descending on the city, and eventually what was once a protest, descended into a pure anarchical riot.

2.

One of the youths present in the riots claimed that he was only there to do what he wanted, he called it a 'Freedom Act' claiming that you can do whatever you want, and the police wont be able to stop you. He also claims that the only reason he is out is to drink, and get money. Although this was only one rioters claims, others tend to all have similar views, with the majority of them claiming that they are doing this so that they can anger the police. However other people seem to claim that the reasons that youths were in the riots was because they were being greedy, and were looking for an excuse to steal various items of great expense.

3. In my opinion I would say that the youths were not given a fair representation via the media. All the headlines reported on the bad things, such as the stealing, abusiveness of the youths. They also didn't differentiate between the obvious groups of youths, such as the ones who were rioting, and the ones who were, thus adding fuel to the stereotype of 'all youths are evil'. However in contrast to my previous points, the youths sometimes created this image for themselves during interviews with news crews. Some openly made it clear that they were only here to steal and riot. Interestingly in the background of the video I posted for question 2, you can see a youth behind the main speaker seeming to disagree with his reasons. I would say that this shows some of the other youths that weren't as bad as the others, although many of the viewers would only be interested in what the main speaker was saying.


Applying Theory

The London Riots

The youths in the videos do not seem to need much representing as they are acting how many would already perceive them. They are conducting wanton acts of violence, challenging authority, and being obnoxious to those around them. In one of the interviews, the rioter that they interview cannot come up with a decent reason for why he is rioting. He even says "I can't explain it in words" possibly indicating that he doesn't even know himself, although he does say it's to piss the police off, so that might be part of the reason. He also claims that all he did was drink,

Historical Case Study Write Up

What is a moral panic?
A moral panic is when something is expressed in such a way that it begins to worry people, i.e. over-exaggeration. For example the way that the media report on certain items makes them seem a lot worse than they actually. Newspapers are a prime example of this as they use headlines that exaggerate the truth, such as 'Horror on the London Underground' to describe a man being knocked unconscious during a fight on the London Underground.

Deviance Amplification

This is where a small social group become more and more prominent, and cause people to panic, due to how over-exaggerated their image has now become. This could be said about the youths of today, as before they would have been a small group, but as the media has reported on them, and blown certain events out of proportion, the group has gained more followers, and has since become more of a problem.

Clockwork Orange

1. The film is well known for it's banning on the grounds of it's violent content, and the fact that it created a moral panic amongst the population. People believed that should youths see this film and the violence it contains, and would then try to replicate it. However when youths were questioned about it, they claimed that they saw a society that they had already lived through.

2. The press focused on the main shock points about the film, such as the violence in the opening of the scenes and many of the other shocking sections of the film. This is part of the reason that a moral panic was created amongst the public, as they were scared by the way the film and it's content was reported, leading them to make assumptions about how this would affect the youths. Christian Bugge talks about how the media was sent into a panic over copycat scenarios in everyday life. He talks about how a 16 year old boy beat a tramp to death, much like the opening scene from "A Clockwork Orange". The media were quick to report on the scenario, and use terms such as "Transformed a quiet boy" and "viciously battered" to make their point seem more dramatic than it actually was.

3. Stanley Cohens theories can be linked in to this as the media used over-exaggeration of the content in the film to probably try to boost their sales. However at the same time it was this over-exaggeration that caused the public to worry about their children, and what influences they could come up against in their everyday life.

Quadrophenia
1. Jimmy - He is seen to be someone who doesn't want to stand out on his own, he wants to be a part of something. As a result of this, he seems to get caught up in unsavoury activities, such as the riot in Brighton, or beating up of two rockers (one of which is his friend Kevin). At times it looks like even he doesn't seem to know why he does what he does, he just seems to go along with everyone else.

Steph -

Kevin -

2.

3.

4. Stan Cohens theory can be linked in once again because of the media. In this case it is the riot at Brighton, and the newspaper that we are shown with the report of the event. The report shows a picture on the front with a massive group of the mods and rockers fighting, focusing in particular on the violence. This is actually contrast to a similar newspaper clipping that Jimmy is seen holding earlier in the film, depicting a similar group of people. People who saw these articles would be quick to make assumptions about the mods and the rockers.