I recommend..

The assignment with Blogs for Media and Society class was a challenging, indeed very interesting. When I was going trough the blogs of my classmates, these are those that I have found most interesting.

Sophia Kiguradze- In her blog she does a great job by exploring the problem of how Media, Advertising in particular represents women and what are the standards that it implies on the society. What are the results of our constant hunt for being rich, thin and beautiful like women from the covers of magazine. For more information visit the blog: http://sophiakigura.wordpress.com/

Chrisitina Kneitz- Blog by Christina, which you can visit HERE is a refreshing and very interesting. The importance of Art and the way it is influence with a spreading of the Media, what are the values that we forgot, how helpful art could be, and what are the ways it is developing in the world of Media.

Klaudia Linkeschova- Violence and Children in Media is a great blog that touches upon very important and highly debates issue of impact of violent media on children and their development. If you believe that the violence in Media should be regulated for the sake of saving ethical views and standards of our children and even their metal health to some extend, then visit Klaudia's blog and investigate the problem  together with her. Start your journey here : http://violenceandchildreninmedia.blogspot.com/

Karolina Hejcmanova- Karolina's Blog was absolutely interesting. The issue of product placement and different aspects of it is very interested and well discussed in this blog. I would recommend it, as it is a great source of information, combined with a great style of writing and supported by interesting videos and articles. Enjoy by following a link: http://theproductplacementblog.blogspot.com/


Tisha Orozalieva- In case you are still really worried about the end of the World, and are afraid to turn on your TV or read your daily newspaper, because you don't want to know that Apocalypsis is comming, visit blog by Tisha, and let your nerves calm down. As it turns out, World is about to exist for a very long time... http://mediainfluenceon2012.blogspot.com/

I hope that you would enjoy these blogs. And I would like to thank everybody for their comments. They were very helpful for me, and gave me a deeper understanding of the issue, and some more food for thinking. It was a pleasure to read your blogs as well.

There is always a way...

    All the problems have their own solutions. And even though the stereotyping is something hard to fight against as we are not able to ultimately change the way humans think, we still can take stand and show the world who we are. 

   In the article from Hearliners by Jack O'Sullivan of the Independent, one possible solution to the problem of stereotyping of young people was discussed.  In May 1995 new organisation was formed, called Children Express. It is dealing with regulation of media that stereotypes young people. 

The organisation is part news agency, part youth club, says Rowena Young, London bureau chief. Its members, aged 8-18, aim to reach policy-makers by getting their views into the media. With the support of staff, these kids remind adults that there's nearly a quarter of the population they routinely forget.

   I believe that this is a great way of dealing with a problem. And no matter how hard it might be to fight against it, young people should take a stand in defending themseleves. Because if we are not going to defend oursleves, then noone would.

  Here is one more interesting video that proves that young people do not correspond to stereotypes:

Just always remember, You are responsible for defending yourself.

Too much skin in 'Skins'

   If you haven't seen famous MTV british episodes 'Skins' then you've missed out on a good teen drama and well some of almost child pornography. Even though I personally have nothing against this TV show and find it just an attempt to represent life of some troubled teen, critics and parents created a mass protest against this show. They claim that this 'Skins' go 'just too far' in showing their life and believe that sexual scenes can be considered child pornography, as all the characters on the show are approximately of age 15. 

  One thing that 'Skins' cannot be blamed for it stereotyping, even thought they did show teens who use drugs and have sex they try to represent much more about them than that and try to look at the reasons of such behaviour, instead of applying clichees on them. 

  The article by Kate Rogers published in Fox Business in January 2011, suggests that TV episodes 'Skins' are clamed to cross the line in their attempt to be popular and sold. This is what article suggests: 

"Matt Britton, CEO and founder of Mr. Youth, a marketing agency, said while MTV has always aimed for controversy with its programming, this latest attempt at going for shock value may be alienating its advertising base.  But he said that is a decision to be made regarding what's best for business, and not based on a moral issue, as ultimately it comes down to parents, not advertisers, to police what content teens are exposed to."

   Well, even though adults believe in high controversy of the 'Skins' I can't stop myself from thinking how naive they might possibly be. How could they claim about 'child pornography' in one particular TV show when all tv shows are about sex, or have sexual jokes. When kissing in movies is not enough anymore as it used to be in golden times of Hollywood. When internet is completely filled with porn for any possible taste.  What they are succeeded in, is definitely in sounding ridiculous. Instead of caring about stereotypes they apply themselves and looking in the problem of an issue deeper, they would rather keep blindly putting blames on someone. After all, Tv shows like 'Skins' is purely result of adults prejudicial beliefs ans stereotypes of young people.

Read the article by Kate Rogers: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/marketing-sales/2011/01/25/teen-mom-skins-market-teens/#ixzz1LqQVsojV  

Je pense que...

    Even though word stereotyping appeared in dictionaries not earlier than 150 years ago, the concept of it existed for a long while. With appearing of printing press it spread all over the world and brought new understandings about cultures and things to everybody. First media to use stereotyping were books. The characters that were famous usually corresponded to some particular standards and clichés, as, for instance, the villain, the prince, the princess, the farmer, the magician, the knight, the king, etc. Later on with a development of technologies, newspapers got into our lives, spreading new stereotypes about cultures and races, as for example early stereotypes of Native Americans or Black people. When movie industry opened  its doors for eyes of millions of people around the globe, it fed them more and more stereotypes about life in different countries, about rich and poor, moreover bringing new stereotypical idols and standards of celebrities and movie stars. However the most dramatic stereotyping appeared on Tv. It felt like Tv is not able to exist and function without putting in our minds millions of clichés and stereotypes of every single issue, thing and person in this world. However, World Wide Web took the final step in putting all those stereotypes in easy access and making it a part of our existence, part of the way we perceive the world. 

    While stereotyping is an important and highly debatable issues nowadays, there are some stereotypes that influence out life in a great negative way. One of those is stereotypes on young people. Nowadays young people face a huge problem of dealing with adults who perceive them the way they are represented on the television, newspapers and internet. Young criminals, drug user, alcoholics, perverted generation that starts having dirty and dangerous sex too early, party people, irresponsible, rude and careless. This is what young people are expected to be, this is how they are portrayed by the media, by numerous tv shows, news reports and articles in magazines. And the effect of such attitude is evident. When young people are expected to do or to be something, they try fulfill those expectations. According to the research conducted by The Independent more than 52 % of media portrays young people in a negative way. This number is high and shows how are widespread are stereotypes about young people are. 

   If society is about to judge young generation for the way they are, they first need to look at what they expect them to be. Constant criticizing and disrespect and unstoppable expectation of failure is what young people face. These all causes young people to either struggle against stereotypes and try to prove this world and adults that they are capable of being mature and responsible, or give up and become what they are expected to be, start using drugs, have unsafe sex and abuse alcohol. 

  In conclusion, even though we tend to think that stereotyping is just a part of our human nature, that we need to generalize, make expectations and apply self-created standards, which are usually wrong, we have to consider the problems that we are creating by stereotyping everything. And while we forgot to care about present and be responsible for the past, we are obliged to improve our future. And we can do so by stopping young generation from being perceived so negative and stereotypical.

Works Cited :

Representation of Young People in Media. May 9th,2011. www.npsp.sa.gov. Web. http://www.npsp.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1010

Heidi Burgess. Stereotypes/ Characterization Frames. October 23, 2003. Beyond Intractability. May 9th, 2011. Web. http://beyondintractability.org/essay/stereotypes

Robert Verkaik and Arifa Akbar. October 23, 2006. The Independent. May 9th, 2011. Web. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/behind-the-stereotypes-the-shocking-truth-about-teenagers-421295.html

Media ToolKit.Youth Stereotyping and Its Effect. Media Awareness.ca. May 9th. 2011. Web.http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/toolkit/stereotypes/youth_stereotypes_news.cfm

Seize the Day

    As I've already mentioned, those who know the best about influence of media stereotyping are youngsters themselves. Recently, I found an interesting article/personal opinion by Steve Poole who held investigation in high school and talked to several young people about how they live, what they do and most importantly why they do it.

   The major shock for him was a phrase of a girl: "That's what being a teenager is all about. Trying new things, experimenting with your body, and stuff," that he got as a response for a question why they use drugs and consume alcohol. Even though it was quite shocking for him, for me, personally, as young person, this answer is what I've heard from a lot of my peers since I turned 'teen. This weird and widely promoted motto "Carpe Diem" was interpreted by youngsters this slightly wrong way.  It's all about trying everything as if tomorrow never comes, being crazy and never saying no to any kind of danger. Catch it before is fades away, do it because, well, you are young, it's your moment.

   And even though this all brought so much trouble, such as early sex, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and vandalism, this is what we are expected to do. Media represents us this way and adults believe us to be like this. And most teens are just fulfilling your expectations...

For the article by Steve Poole follow the link: http://searchwarp.com/swa50570.htm

This is what being young is about...

   While we can see numerous opinions about the issue from adults, clever investigating scientists and psychologists, those who are really aware of the issue and experience it in a deeper sense, are young people themselves.

   UK Newspaper Guardian posted an interesting article in which young people try to show how they feel in reality and what are they facing daily because of media stereotypes on them.

This article is definitely worth reading:

'It seems that we can only be interesting if we are smoking, snorting or stabbing" by Guardian.co.uk

   Moreover, I believe all of you have seen movie Mean Gils with Lindsay Lohan. Below there is a scene in which girls explain how stereotypical average high school is functioning:

16 and Pregnant...

   June 11th, 2009  MTV launched new Tv Show about young and pregnant. Tv Show comes up to the 3rd season and is still a big controversy of MTV. Producer Morgan J. Freeman was making an attempt to show how teenage mothers, struggle with their pregnancy, their 'new life', face their problems, parents and peers in high school.

   The Tv Show became a success. However, the road to hell is always paved with good intentions, so '16 and Pregnant' faces tons of critics about promoting teen pregnancy, stereotyping teenagers and representing pregnancy as negative thing.  

   But wait a minute, is it true? are these accusations correct. If we bother to look from other perspective we will see that '16 and Pregnant', now followed by 'Teen Mom' http://www.mtv.co.uk/shows/teen-mom is  a great attempt to break stereotypes about teenager and young people. If we bother to see these episodes try to show that despite of all the problems and struggling that those girls have to overcome, they are good mothers and they are capable of bringing up their child. They are shown as people who are being responsible for their actions, not those who abandoned their child. They find strength and confidence not only to handle harshness of pregnancy but moreover to face their fears, their parents and peers, who do not understand them. 

   Well and if you still stubbornly believe that these episodes promote early pregnancies, then it is time to realize that it is aimed for those who are already pregnant and they are in fear and this Tv Show is a standup and help for those who need support. After all, being a teenage mum is much better then being a teenage murderer or abandoner...

Stereotype Vs Truth

   A lot of people claim that stereotyping of young people in Media is a big deal and an issue that should be taken into consideration. But when it comes to reality people try to avoid admitting that they believe in those stereotypes. Recently there was a survey made that was trying to figure out how strong is an influence of stereptypes on young people, that is promoted by the media, on regular population. 

  The survey was conducted by Irish scientists in 2011 in Market Square Shopping Center. Three girl, that were dressed in a different style:

                   The Goth

                  The Chuv

               The Smartly

 These girls were shown to different people. The questions that were asked: What personality does this girl have? What do you think about her? What could be her future job?

  The results of the research showed that the level of stereotyping was not as high as it was expected to be, however, those girls were still judged and stereotyped accordingly to their looks. 

For more information check the website of Youth Work Ireland: Survey Stereotypes

What and Why?

   Since we are about to discuss stereotyping in Media it would be essential to define it and try to understand what is a reason for people to stereotype.

   Stereotype, according to the definition from Oxford dictionary, is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of particular type of person or thing.

Why do people stereotype?

   People stereotype because the human mind likes order and attempts to see patterns in disorderly situations. For us it is much easier to perceive something within the frames of our expectations. Moreover, sometimes people become too lazy to change their outlooks by researching some issues. It is much easier to perceive everything in a simple way and not be bothered about figuring out actual matters of an issue. However, one of the main blames would be on culture we are within and media that we consume daily. It influences us a lot and teaches us from early years to stereotype, to simplify and 

perceive without digging into the issue.

   Some more information on why people stereotype you can find on a following link:     Why Do People Stereotype?

Breaking the Balloon...

        Since the creation of a printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 people started to observe the influence of Media and its development on Society. As time passed by, the effects became more evident and concern about them grew. Mr. Gutenberg and other people, who took their part in development of the media and bringing it into homes of people around the world, probably didn't expect that their inventions would lead to such crucial changes in the Society. 

      And here we are. Observing how Media changes us, influences us and goes together with development of our society. Apart from having a big box of advantages, that we get from being a Media Age consumers, we face a lot of issues that make humanity think a bit harder on why and how Media influences us, and how we are going to deal with it. 

    In my blog I want to talk about the issue that concerns me the most in current Media. Stereotyping. No matter how much you believe that you are critically thinking human being, you are influenced by stereotypes that media created. You may hate it, deny it, fight with it, but your subconscious, somewhere there in the back of your head consumes with greed all those stereotypes. We live in a time when the world in eyes of Media consumer became a big rubber balloon, filled with stereotypes about everything and everyone. And in this blog I will take attempt to put needle through it. And the point I will be aiming at, would be Stereotyping of Young People in Media.