Monday 25 April 2011

Consider the view that the recent representation of teenagers is simply another moral panic:

Moral panic by definition is whe society sees itself threatened by the values and activities of a group who are seen as a threat to mainstream society's values. This is clearly seen in the trailer of Biully as the protagonist challenging the school's values and beliefs by causing havoc i.e. beating other students. The title itself "Bully" signifies a direct threat to the school establishment as bullies are not accepted or tolorated. This representation of teenager could now be seen as a dominant representation as the pprotagonist seems to be dominanating his peers and causinng destruction with any consequences. These ideologies of the game can be injected into the audiences mind (as mentioned in the Hyperdermic model), giving them the impression that it's ok to be bad.

Moral panic is addressed on a wider scale in the opening of Skins as we see teens engaging in smoking, drinking and other acts that would be deemed immoral. Again, what is shown in the montage sequence could be seen as a threat towards a social system which enforces hedgemonic values such as beinng a model citizen and not partaking in any of these acts.

However not all representations of teenagers in the media are something to be considered a moral panic as we show such as Glee which promotes partaking in school activities and trying to be a model student (as opposed to Bully).

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