Is The Media Affecting British Youth Culture?
The manner in which the youth is represented by the media has a significant effect on the way the general population perceives them and thus can also play a role in getting public support for legislation regarding the controlling of the youth. British media has certainly affected the youth culture of Britain by their constant obsession with finding the next trend, be it fashion or music or Smart phones. Studies seem to indicate that young people are so tired of being misrepresented by the media that now they do not even want to be identified by their age. Very often it has been seen that that journalists fabricate news. Britain’s media are trying to create individualistic looks in an attempt to defy categorization.
The media’s influence however can be seen in terms of the music, fashion, relationship, and the resulting behavior. A lot of the problems in school and delinquencies are in part attributed to media influence. Whether it is glorifying bad behavior and violence or simply the way youths dress the media plays a large role. The problem for the youth is that of finding their own identity without too much outside influences. This has proven to be a great challenge for today’s youth.
The media’s obsession with the youth began with the punk. It was only when this phenomenon started did the British media realize how much their papers could sell if they covered this phenomenon. But some young people nowadays are smarter than these journalists and marketers because now they have started sporting styles that are difficult to define without ambiguity. That is, these styles can’t be clearly defined. This is a direct indication to the media that the youth are just fed up of their tactics and they are no longer willing to be dominated by them or for that matter being known by their birth year.
It is important that parents and the government protect the youths from the negative effects of the media as the social problems that arise if they do not is likely to be costly to the country and to the youths themselves. It is difficult to legislate how the media presents itself but what needs to be done must be done.