First Draft

This essay will examine the way in which British teenagers are represented in these TV programmes The Inbetweeners (2008), Skins (2007), and This Is England 86, 88, 90 (2010-15). Representation is the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way. Representations as they can change a persons opinion on a certain subject due to the way the media portrays something, this shows that representations are very powerful in shaping the thoughts of people. Furthermore representations in the media allow people to gain a better understanding of the specific topic that they are looking at.

In television programmes teenagers are represented differently to how they are in real life, it could be said that TV exaggerates the behaviour of teens. Television seems to focus upon negative stereotypes of teenagers, which is shown in programmes such as Waterloo Road where it shows teens from a disadvantaged background whom misbehave within a school setting. Also TV representations deviate away from the 'norm' in order to make them more exciting and entertaining however, as a result of this it causes teens to be reflected in a bad light.

In the television programmes that I have decided to examine 2 reinforce the negative stereotypes of teens and one refutes the stereotypes. Skins is a British teen comedy drama that follows the lives of a group of teenagers in Bristol, through the two years of sixth form. Its controversial storylines have explored issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness (such as depression, eating disorders and bipolar disorder), adolescent sexuality, gender, substance abuse, death and bullying.  Each episode generally focuses on a particular character and the struggles they face in their life. The programme represents the teens in a very negative light as it suggests that all teens are like the ones in this show, they are shown to be drug abusing, alcohol consuming, anti-social teenagers. This backs up the typical representation of teens within TV.  The programme This is  England series's also reinforce the negative stereotypes of teens. The programme focuses on a group of friends trying to make their own way in life, looking for employment, love and entertainment. It shows the group fighting with other groups and also fighting within their own group, also it shows racist behaviour, however although it shows teens negatively for the majority it does show some positive aspects. It shows the struggles that different characters go through and how they are helped by their friends, although they're shown negatively it also shows that teens have a strong sense of loyalty. On the other side of the stereotype is how teenagers are represented positively and well behaved. This is shown in The Inbetweeners which focuses  on 4 social outcasts during their time at sixth form while they try to fit in and try to find love. These teenagers don't cause any problems and aren't anti-social.


Newspaper articles also represent teenagers and some focus upon the positive things that teenagers do rather than the negative things. An example of this is a article from the Telegraph from 16th February which was wrote by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and has the headline ‘’From hoodies to goodies: today's teenagers have the makings of model citizens’’. This shows that stereotypes of teens need to be updated as although teens may have deserved their bad reputation past, it now needs to be changed as they have changed themselves. Another newspaper article which shows the change in teens is also from the Telegraph and has been written by Richard Garner on 13th March 2009, ‘’Hoodies, louts, scum': how media demonises teenagers". This article discusses how teenagers have been made to out by the media to be a bad group of people and how every teenager is grouped to have the same characteristics of the minority of teenagers who misbehave.

Overall, I believe that the way teenagers are represented in TV programmes is very different to how teenagers actually are in really live. Every teenager is different and it is unfair to group all of them into one group with the same characteristic. TV does exaggerate the behaviour of teenagers and only does this in order to make their programmes more exciting and appealing.