Lesson Notes: History of Youth Culture

Media and Collective Identity
- study of how media represents social groups historically, now and in the future (past, present, future).
- could be asked to 'assess the claim that the media is becoming more democratic'.

Youth Culture Similarities

• fashion style
• music influence
• literature involved with the scene (magazines, websites)
• cultural practices (activity, behaviour, morals)
• conformity within group/shared beliefs
• outside of 'normality' - marginalised (stand out from the crowd but fit in with their group)
• often have opinion leader (band member or host of a popular website)

Definitions

• Collective Identity - the self that finds solidarity with others who are similar.
• Mediated - how the media portrays the social group and the influence it has on their identity. 
• Links to 'We Media' - marginalised social groups have often used media as a way of forging their own collective identity. 
• This 'We Media' can challenge how social groups are represented by the media. This is a form of self representation.
• It can also be used to describe people who do not have professional qualifications or industry experience in the media.
• Prosumers - a merger of 'producer' and 'consumer'. Prosumers are people who used to only consume media, but now create and distribute it too. This change has been facilitated by the proliferation of technology. 

Summary

- 'Teenager' is a constructed social group. It was made by marketers to sell products and services to that age group.

- 1960s and 70s rebelled against consumerism and being marketed towards by forming a counter-culture - this became their own youth culture. 

- continued by formation of user-generated cultures online.