How realistic are the representations of young people in Skins and Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents?
Despite Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents being a reality show, the construction and mediation of the programme creates an extreme representation of youth, and in every episode the teenagers are represented negatively. The footage of the teenagers at night, drinking excessive amounts, being irresponsible and promiscuous takes up the majority of the programme and narratives from the parents and the voiceover further anchor the negative representations we get from this show.
Skins is another programme i looked into that represents young people and in my opinion similar to Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents, although sometimes accurate, it exaggerates the partying lifestyle, adolescent behaviour and day to day life of young people. As a drama, it is created and the producers control the representations that are shown. Different people will take a different reading to the show but the main audience would be 16-19 year olds perhaps because they can personally identify and relate with the characters and some of the issues that are raised in the programme therefore it is realistic to some extent, just very exaggerated.
Positive representations: In Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents there are more negative representations than positive. Some of the girls on the programme are shown acting more maturely, they seem more reserved and less confident the boys in the majority of the episodes however there are very few positive representations on the programme as it definitely shows teenagers at their extremes of behaviour.
Skins does create a few positive representations of young people, however most of them are further contradicted at some point later in the series. They're shown discussing grades and uni which portrays a care for their futures which is fairly realistic, most young people have priorities of getting a good job and going to university and it does create something positive because it contradicts stereotypes of naivety and carelessness that is often associated with young people.
A lot of the representations in these two programmes do confirm stereotypes of young people in society, for example Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents shows the negative side of teenagers going out drinking to extremes which will confirm a lot of stereotypes of youth. However at the start of the programme, we get some insight in the type of people the teenagers are through the narrative, they are given labels immediately and we make instant judgements before the programme even properly gets started. Most of the labels are negative and exaggerated, often unrealistic and contradicted further on in the programme, which makes the initial representations in this programme not very realistic.
In Skins there are many stereotypes confirmed and some are fairly realistic.
Positive representations: In Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents there are more negative representations than positive. Some of the girls on the programme are shown acting more maturely, they seem more reserved and less confident the boys in the majority of the episodes however there are very few positive representations on the programme as it definitely shows teenagers at their extremes of behaviour.
Skins does create a few positive representations of young people, however most of them are further contradicted at some point later in the series. They're shown discussing grades and uni which portrays a care for their futures which is fairly realistic, most young people have priorities of getting a good job and going to university and it does create something positive because it contradicts stereotypes of naivety and carelessness that is often associated with young people.
A lot of the representations in these two programmes do confirm stereotypes of young people in society, for example Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents shows the negative side of teenagers going out drinking to extremes which will confirm a lot of stereotypes of youth. However at the start of the programme, we get some insight in the type of people the teenagers are through the narrative, they are given labels immediately and we make instant judgements before the programme even properly gets started. Most of the labels are negative and exaggerated, often unrealistic and contradicted further on in the programme, which makes the initial representations in this programme not very realistic.
In Skins there are many stereotypes confirmed and some are fairly realistic.
