Critical Investigation & Linked Production

My critical investigation will focus on "To what extent are teenage girls represented positively within the media?". I'll be looking at newspaper articles in particular as well as television news reports and internet news reports. As of recently teenage girls are being portrayed negatively in the media so I think that I'll be more likely to find negative representations rather than positive ones, however I'll try my best to look for positive and negative representations.

My linked production is a documentary in to the lives of young teenagers and the lives of teenagers who feel they are stereotyped with the rest and do not follow that stereotype.

MIGRAIN:

Media Language =
- How they communicate with one another in comparision to how they communicate with others.

- The music they listen to and if they conform to the representation of women shown in that particular genre such as "Hip-Hop".

Ideologies =
- If young females are looked at negatively in the media due to their recent high intake of drugs and alcohol consumption.
- If young females are looked at negatively in the media due to their obsession with models, actresses in the media and to what extent they aspire to be like them. e.g. being thin/ size zero.
- If young females are looked at negatively in the media due to the recent high teen pregnancy rate in the U.K. in recent times, whereas they are labelled more negatively than boys.

Genre=
- I can look at teen american movies and see to what extent British teenage girls conform to being like the actresses they see in these particular movies.

- Relate this back to the obsession of being thin / size zero.

- Look at the relationships these teenage girls have with the opposite sex and to what extent is it familiar to the relationships teenage girls have with boys in the U.K.

- Try and identify whether or not these particular teen american movies glamorise the use of intoxicants such as smoking and alcohol.

Representation=
- How young females are represented in the media and how they are stereotyped to be obsessed with their image, early pregnancies and a high intake of drugs and alcohol consumption.
- How young females are represented positevly in the media such as when they are complemented for achieving higher grades than their male counter parts in schools and exams.

Audience=
- The Linked production will attract a high audience as all teenagers both female and male will wish to watch it to know how they are being represented and to what exent are the representations they are given true.
- Parents as they will want to know to what children these days are getting up to and if there children have any similiarities with the children shown in the media.
- My primary target audience will be those of class C1, c2 and D grade aged 13+ as they are the type of teenagers who are usually focused on in the media. Also they are most likely to be attracted to the linked production as they are the ones who can relate to the issues which will be delt with in the documentary. Moreover, they fit the socio-economic group and are most likely to be living in the same conditions in which the teenagers in the documentary will be living.

Institution=
- BBC could be a potential institution as they are most likely to focus on issues going on in Britain today which is affecting the population.

- Channel 4 is a channel which I feel mis targeted at the youth so they can be seen as a potential institution. They also show many documentarys on a weekly basis. (3-4 approximatley).

Narrative=
- The narrative will be based upon how young teenagers are represented in the media and to what extent they are represented positevly and negatively in the media.

- Also I'll be looking at to what extent U.K. teenagers follow and copy American teenagers such in films, music ect.

- Lastly, how the narrative links to the news today and make a documentary not following the negative media but giving negative and positive representations allowing viewers to make their own minds up about how they view todays teenagers.

SHEP:

Social = The impact the deliquent or positive behaviour from the teenage girls is having on societey, and how societeys views may have changed on them.

Historical = This has been covered before in the media but in recent times the coverage of teenage girls has been increasing.

Ecenomic = This will be ecenomically good because the documentary can be distribued and funded with a low budget. Also, alot of money will be made from the documentary as it will attract a large number of consumers ranging from teenagers to parents of both sexes.

Political= This is in particular an issue delt with by the government as the tax payer has often complained about why it is they should have to pay for the benefits given to teenage girls with babies who don't work and have dropped out of school.

Issues and Debates= My critical investigation will be exploring most of the issues and debates related to this issue such as early pregnancies, high intake of drugs and alcohol consumption, image obsessioned and other positive representations I can find. The issues and debates will be as unbiased as I can make them and in the end I will be making my own judgement and siding with one representation out of a positive one and a negative one.

Media Theories=

Gender Theory= This relates to my critical investigation because I'll be focusing in particular on females and their positive and negative represenation. How they are portrayed in the eyes of public and how the media influences their opinions.

Audience Theory= This will relate to my critical investigation and linked production peice as I will need to identify how to appeal to my target audience which is social class C1, C2 and D males aged between 13 - 19 and my secondary which is all others who would be interested in this topic.