Main Issues Raised With Sket

Issues Raised

• Knife Crime
• Gang Culture 
• Rape
• Drugs
• Prostitution
• 
  

Language Used

• Sket 
• Shanked 
• 
  

Theorist / Theory Table

Theorist / Theory	Case Study
Antonio Gramsci - Hegemony  Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci (1881-1937). He emphasised that the control of society by one group or one set of political ideas was not necessarily achieved by force or control of arms, but by persuasion and ‘consent’ – the basis of democracy. The rulers manage to convince the mass of the population that they are ‘better off’ accepting current government policies. Maintaining hegemonic control is thus a process of constantly reinforcing the message and developing the argument. The concept of hegemony allows for substantial change in ideas over time, even though the same groups remain in power. These groups constantly adjust their ideas and find new ways to gain the consent of those they dominate. In media terms the Mass Media both perpetuate cultural hegemony and are a cultural hegemony in themselves in that a relatively small number of big companies, e.g. News Corp., The BBC, Time Warner, Sony etc., control most of the world’s media, and this in turn allows them to control most of what we see, hear and know. This, in turn, allows them to control what we think, selecting only ideas that serve its interests, i.e. bourgeois capitalism. This is known as a ‘Top Down’ model of dominant ideologies.
David Buckingham “A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life, and their consequences for both individuals and for social groups”
Mikhail Bakhtin  The Russian philosopher Bakhtin believed that individual people cannot be finalized, completely understood, known or labeled. He saw identity as the unfinalised self meaning a person is never fully revealed or known. This ties in with the idea that identity is a fluid concept, a life-long project that is never complete.
Stan Cohen  Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972)
Michel Foucault  (French thinker 1926-1984)  For Foucault, people do not have a 'real' identity within themselves; that's just a way of talking about the self -- a discourse. An 'identity' is communicated to others in your interactions with them, but this is not a fixed thing within a person. It is a shifting, temporary construction. Power is something which can be used and deployed by particular people in specific situations, which itself will produce other reactions and resistances; and isn't tied to specific groups or identities.  Power outcomes are not inevitable and can be resisted. (The power in our instance would be MASS MEDIA)
Henry Jenkins - Participatory Culture He celebrates these kinds of 'participatory' media and argues that a 'participatory culture' is one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another. Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement. Links to the idea that social media can empower young people and bring about change.

A Look At The SKET Poster & My Thoughts

The image shows 5 people which from the poster look to be the main actors. The 5 people who can be seen with in this poster are females and look very angry / violent and are holding weapons such as a baseball bat and bricks. The bottom half of the poster is covered by the title of the film "SKET"

All the characters in the film are dressed the same which could suggest that they are all from the same background and area. From the image on the poster it suggests that the film will involve a lot of violence and fighting.

My Thoughts On The Film
Sket was terrible!

Response From The Rioters Within The Media

From my research I have found that the rioters them selfs were given a lot of air time / interview time when the riots were happening and also after the riots. In some cases like the interview above the rioters / youths do not help their own representation through the media.

London Riots !

Article 1
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023254/Tottenham-riot-Mark-Duggan-shooting-sparked-police-beating-girl.html


The images used a long side the corresponding article frames the youth as the main culprits with in this disturbance. They have done this by using images of youths with in the disturbance and also showing images of middle age + cleaning up which makes them look as if they are they only responsible ones. The images in a news article can be very powerful and in some cases can give of a separate story

How were the London riots reported via the media

Who do the reporters interview ?
Reports are very careful who they choose for an interview as in most cases the select a person who is going to cause some controversy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH5HAg7RTKk


What images are used in the broadcast ? What does this suggest about the representation of the riots ?
The news seems to broadcast pictures of the riots which frame the youth as the main culprit

Quadrophenia: back when Britain's youngsters ran riot

Youth culture

Boris Johnson arrives on the scene

Jimmy (Phil Daniels), a fictional mod, hangs out in a London dive. Everyone looks about 12; pass round a few splurge guns and you'd be in Bugsy Malone. But this lot are less the adorable moppet sort of gangster and more the sort that takes pills, nicks stuff and smashes other people's faces in. Among the newspaper clippings and pornography on Jimmy's bedroom wall is an article about the 'Battle of Hastings' – not the 1066 one with the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans, but the 1964 one with the mods and the rockers. The film is based on a rock opera by the Who, which it turns into a stealth musical, complete with lavish product placement for the Who's albums. Still, Jimmy's obsession with the band is credible: their hit My Generationbecame the ultimate mod anthem on its release in 1965.

Violence

Britain's youngest rioter escapes on her tricycle

The mods plan a weekend away in Brighton. So do the rockers. It turns into a running street riot. Kids whack each other with deckchairs, rockers get shoved over the edge of the promenade, shops and cafes are torn apart. There's a clumsy jolt of unreality when the mods stream past a cinema showing Grease and Heaven Can Wait, both released in 1978: this is supposed to be 1965. On the other hand, there's a gesture to historical accuracy when we see a photographer gleefully taking pictures. In 1972, sociologist Stanley Cohen wrote a study of the mods and rockers phenomenon called Folk Devils and Moral Panics. Though there was no doubt that some incidents had been violent and destructive, he found that significant facts had been exaggerated by the mass media – and that the hysterical reporting of the riots had actually provoked and escalated them. There was a credible suggestion that photographers were asking young men in mod or rocker gear to pose kicking in a window or smashing up a telephone booth.

Justice

Even hoodlums need a hot cuppa

Facing down a court room full of unrepentant youth, the magistrate doesn't hold back. "These long-haired, mentally unstable, petty little hoodlums, these sawdust Caesars who can only find courage like rats, in hunting in packs, came to Brighton with the avowed intent of interfering with the life and property of its inhabitants," he says. His speech is taken word for word from remarks given in court by George Simpson, a Margate magistrate whose florid pronouncements were widely quoted after the Whitsun riots in 1964 – except, of course, that Simpson said "came to Margate" rather than "came to Brighton". Thanks to his sharp tongue, he became a national hero.

Media

Police patrol ... operation Sting

Mod Ace-Face (Sting) is fined £75 by the magistrate. "I'll pay now if you don't mind," drawls Ace-Face, revealing enormous wealth and privilege (£75 in 1965 is equivalent to about £2,700 today, going by average earnings; it was ritzy for a teenager to own a chequebook). This is based on a real trial overseen by Simpson at Margate in which a 17-year-old boy did indeed offer to pay his £75 fine with a cheque. Britain's media were united in their outrage at this new breed of posh-kid rioter, and splashed the story across the front pages. What none of them bothered to report was that, three days later, the boy admitted he had never signed a cheque and did not even have a bank account, let alone £75. Quadrophenia gets slightly closer to the truth: after the verdict, Jimmy's heart is broken when he sees his beloved Ace-Face working as a bellhop at the Grand Hotel, revealing that he's not really a posh kid at all. The fact he's stuck in a lowly job would be bad enough but, even worse, they've made him dress up as a majorette. Poor Sting.

Verdict

Drugs, delinquency and ... dancing

Back in 1972, Stanley Cohen concluded: "The intellectual poverty and total lack of imagination in our society's response to its adolescent trouble-makers during the past 20 years, is manifest in the way this response compulsively repeats itself and fails each time to come to terms with the 'problem' that confronts it." Quadrophenia is a striking and evocative reminder of a bygone age when Britain was … well, basically exactly the same as it is now.

Via The Guardian