Notes and
Quotes
Title: How
is deviant youth represented in the British media in texts such as 'Offender'?
Offender (primary text)
·
“The
fallout from last year’s London riots was extensive, with people quick to
provide reasons for the violence that occurred not just in the capital but, in
smaller pockets, across the UK.”
·
“Director
Ron Scalpello’s debut film, Offender, begins with the shocking scene of a young man,
Tommy (Joe Cole, Skins), being arrested after beating up two police officers as
the riots ignite around him on London’s streets”
Offender – TimeOut
·
“This London prison drama set in a young offenders’
institution (it was originally called ‘Feltham’) clearly sees itself as today’s
‘Scum’”
·
“There’s a grim believability to its brutal depiction of life
inside – walls barely containing the aggression and fear of these angry young
men”
·
“Newcomer Joe Cole stars as Tommy, a good kid who
deliberately gets himself put away to exact revenge against the gang who
viciously beat up his girlfriend.”
Offender Film Review – The Guardian
·
“Set against
the topical background of the 2011 riots, Offender has the not unfamiliar plot of a man
getting himself sent to jail in order to exact vengeance on some incarcerated
criminals.”
·
“In
this case, a London teenager infiltrates a young offenders' institution to
track down the gang who violently assaulted his pregnant girlfriend to prevent
her giving evidence in a murder trial.”
·
“The
detail is realistic and it's a decent enough genre piece. But unlike its
acknowledged model, Alan Clarke's Scum,
the 1979 movie that launched Ray Winstone's career, Offender has
little revealing or useful to say about the appalling conditions in juvenile
prisons.”
Offender Film Review – The Guardian
·
“Waiting for Britain's answer to A Prophet, or an
update of Scum? Keep waiting.”
·
“London teen Tommy is well 'ard. When his pregnant
sweetheart falls victim to gangland thugs amid last year's riots, he's not
having it”
·
“He
will have his vengeance in this world, or in the young offenders' institution
where he gets himself incarcerated to hunt down his prey.”
·
“First-time director Ron Scalpello seems out only
to shock with brutality, but the violence proves disappointingly tame.”
·
“The
plot and characters are lame and implausible, the dialogue is banal and the
acting mediocre. Not an imprisonable offence, but nearly.”
Youth people in the media – UK youth
- “76% of reporting of young people
is negative.”
- “Only 12% of crime is committed
by young people.”
- “39% of adults are unaware of the
positive things young people do.”
- “Nearly 750 young people
completed an online poll for the British Youth Council (BYC) and YouthNet
- 80% believed unfair portrayal in the media led to strained relations
with older generations.”
'Hoodies, louts, scum': how media
demonises teenagers – Independent
·
“Figures
show more than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional
newspapers in the past year (4,374 out of 8,629) were about crime. “
·
“The word most
commonly used to describe them was "yobs" (591 times), followed by
"thugs" (254 times), "sick" (119 times) and
"feral" (96 times).”
·
“Other
terms often used included "hoodie", "louts",
"heartless", "evil" "frightening",
"scum", "monsters", "inhuman" and
"threatening".”
·
“for
all the coverage of teenage issues – the boys' voices themselves were rarely
heard in newspapers. Fewer than one in 10 articles about young people actually
quoted young people or included their perspectives in the debate.”
The Riots - 2011:
‘These things are universal’: new film examines
story of Mark Duggan killing
·
“In the early evening of 4 August 2011, a minicab
driving through Tottenham, north London, was stopped by armed police.”
·
“They
surrounded the vehicle and shouted for the passenger, 29-year-old Mark Duggan,
to get out of the car.”
·
“When
he did an officer (known as V53 at the subsequent inquest), thought he saw a
gun in Duggan’s right hand. He
fired twice, killing him.”
·
“Duggan’s
death ignited the worst riots in
modern English history. Starting in London, before spreading to other UK
cities, the unrest lasted six days and resulted in more than 3,000 arrests
across the country.”
British youths
are 'the most unpleasant and violent in the world': Damning verdict of writer
as globe reacts to riots – Mail Online
·
“British
youths have been branded as 'the most unpleasant and potentially violent young
people in the world' by a renowned doctor-writer”
·
“Anthony
Daniels, a retired prison doctor and psychiatrist who has worked in some of the
hardest-hit areas on the planet, said the British were now in great fear of
their own arrogant, knife-wielding children”
·
“In
South Africa, the Afrikaans daily Beeld led with the headline 'Anarchy Grows'
above a huge picture of a burning street in the capital.”
·
“The Cape Times'
main story was also about Britain's crisis, with an extensive report headlined
'Riots Spread Across UK'.”
·
“The tabloid
Citizen also led with the unrest, with its front page featuring a large picture
of two riot officers standing beside a burning building.”
England rioters: young, poor and unemployed – The Guardian
·
“David
Cameron said this week that the riots "were not about poverty", but the Guardian's database of court cases raises the question that there may be,
at the very least, a correlation between economic hardship and those accused of
taking part in last week's violence and looting.”
·
“In
London, the evidence suggests rioters often looted shops and businesses in or
near the areas where they lived.”
·
“According to the
data collected so far, 66% of those who have appeared in court are aged under
25 – with 17% aged between 11 and 17. Only a very small number in our data were
aged over 30. More than 90% are male.”
·
“More than
two-thirds of those in the Guardian's data set were remanded in prison, with
39% being passed to crown courts for trial or sentencing.”
·
“Less than 10% of
cases collated by the Guardian were given a sentence after their first
appearance and there have only been a handful of cases where bail has been
granted – mainly where the accused was under 18.”
London riots 1981:
Brixton riots report blames racial tension – On this day
1950-2005
·
“Last
April's riots in Brixton, south London were caused by serious social and
economic problems affecting Britain's inner cities.”
·
“Lord Scarman's
inquiry into what he called the worst outbreak of disorder in the UK this
century also blamed "racial disadvantage that is a fact of British
life".”
·
“The report
criticised police and the government, but it said there was no excuse for the
violence and praised officers for their conduct during the disorder.”
·
“The
investigation found the rioting was caused by a spontaneous crowd reaction to
police action - rightly or wrongly believed to be harassment of black people -
and had not been planned.”
·
“On the night of
10 April two police officers were attempting to help a black youth who was
bleeding from a suspected stab wound when they were approached by a hostile
crowd.”
·
“The local
community was already aggravated by "Operation Swamp" - during which
large numbers of black youths were stopped and searched - and the confrontation
quickly escalated.”
The legacy of the Brixton riots – BBC News
·
“More
than 300 people were injured and the damage caused came to an estimated value
of £7.5m.”
·
“Many were second generation, born to parents
who had come to Britain from the Caribbean in the late 1940s and 1950s to help
"the motherland" with post-war rebuilding.”
·
“But below the
surface tensions had been building up and on 11 April 1981 they boiled over in
Brixton, an area where 25% of residents were from an ethnic minority group.”
·
“The days of full
employment were long gone and in Brixton around half of young black men had no
job.”
·
“In early April, Operation
Swamp - an attempt to cut street crime in Brixton which used the Sus law to
stop more than 1,000 people in six days - heightened tensions.”
'It seems that we can only be interesting if we are smoking, snorting
or stabbing' – The Guardian
·
“When
most people think of young people they see us as a horizontal line. One end
screams, "Violent! Asbos! Hoodies!" and the other end whispers,
"A* student; passes; friendly".
·
“We
are lumped into one group or the other. More often than not the only group that
is ever reported on is the former.”
·
“Why aren't we
reported on, or our lives documented and televised? It seems that we can only
be interesting if we are smoking, snorting or stabbing.”
Negative stereotypes 'hurting teenage job prospects' – BBC News
·
“More than two thirds of 14-17-year-olds believe negative portrayals of
teenagers in the media are affecting their job prospects, a survey suggests.”
·
“About 80% of
teenagers questioned also believed they were more engaged with social issues
than their predecessors.”
·
“It said four in
five teens felt they were unfairly represented in the media and, of these a
vast majority - 85% - said this was affecting their chances of getting a job.”
How the
Police Have Obliterated British Youth Cultures- vice
·
“Emerging
in Manchester’s slums during the late 19th century, scuttlers were maybe the
first British youth subculture – if beating the shit out one another with belts
wrapped around your fists can constitute a “culture”.”
·
“For whatever reason, police didn’t like this increase of children
bludgeoning each other in the street, so cracked down hard on anyone with even
a vague level of involvement. “
·
“Police
didn’t need to know much about them, or make sure they were scuttlers – they
could look the same as any other working-class youth.”
·
“Before
the skinhead look had been co-opted by racists and Dutch fashion designers,
authorities targeted the relatively peaceful, apolitical subculture under the
banner of public safety – because shaving your head and holding your trousers
up with braces is clearly a sign that you want to bottle strangers.”
·
“much
of that initial violence was manufactured by the police themselves.”
·
“According to Dr Williams, grime and garage are the first two
subcultures that the police have found unsettling in a long time. While cops
can’t force a venue to shut down a grime show, “they can threaten to revoke
licenses”, said Williams.”
·
“They can also make it very difficult for a venue to hold an
artist they see as problematic.”
·
“There used to be a section asking whether there would be any
ethnic minorities in attendance, but despite that blatant red flag of racism
now being removed, the question is still implied.”
Top Boy, Channel 4, review – The Telegraph
·
“There
is no doubt that people will write about Top Boy (Channel 4) in an unimaginative
shorthand. Dark, urban and gritty are words that will pop up with predictable
frequency. “
·
“It
was highly effective, particularly when detailing the lives of the teenage boys
who had to navigate not only the pain of adolescence but also the difficulties
of existing in a world where evil lurked around every corner.”
·
“However,
it was occasionally marred by the need to shock and the violence towards the
end had a heightened, Grand Guignol quality that felt at odds with its inherent
naturalism.”
What is wrong with British youth? – The Telegraph
·
“Children should be forced to stay behind for at least an hour
after school in order to combat Britain’s growing yob culture,
according to a leading think-tank.”
·
“Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research found that
teenagers in the UK are more likely than their counterparts in Europe to abuse
drink and drugs, have underage sex, join gangs and get into fights.”
·
“Julia Margo, senior research fellow at the Institute,
said: “Britain has a real problem with its teenagers. Today’s announcement is
an admission that successive Governments have left British youth to its own
devices.””
Generation Boris
·
“The young are less likely than their elders to consider
themselves part of any particular religion, less likely to join a political
party or a trade union and, according to the long-running British Social
Attitudes survey (BSA)”
·
“less likely to have a “high or very high opinion” of the armed
forces. As far as they are concerned, people have a right to express themselves
by what they consume and how they choose to live”
·
“Predictably, that translates into a tolerance for social and
cultural difference. Polls show that the young are more relaxed than others
about drugs, sex, alcohol, euthanasia and non-traditional family structures.”
·
“They dislike immigration, but not as strongly as do their elders.
And they are becoming ever more liberal. The BSA has tracked attitudes for
three decades. It shows that the young are now far more tolerant of
homosexuality, for example, than were previous generations at the same age.”
·
“But their attitudes also reflect the hardships they face today.
The economic slowdown and government cuts have hit them harder than most. The
coalition has trimmed the support paid to those who stay in school between the
ages of 16 and 18, raised university tuition fees and axed a temporary
employment scheme for those aged 18 to 24. Although overall joblessness is
lower than in most European countries, youth unemployment has increased by half
since 2008: an advertisement of eight vacancies at a Nottingham coffee shop
recently drew 1,700 applications.”
