Representatin of 15-20 year olds in Tv Drama

The media tends to represent the 'youth of today' negatively, focusing on sex, drugs, party life, violence, etc. The video below is from Skins SO1, and draws on the main teenage stereotypes. Chris has a laid back, 'i don't care attitude,' parties a lot, buys drugs and sex is implied.



The third series of Skins draws on exactly the same steretypes. Although the characters are often shown in college, they are never doing any form of school work. Their lives seems to consist soley of parties, drugs, and sex. An interesting representation of the youth today.
(emedding disabled, click here)
This clip of Cook begins with a very fast montage of him getting ready, which corresponds with his 'full of life character' and someone who can't stay in one place for a long time. The clip shows his arrogance, agreeing with the representation of the youth of today 'not caring' about others. He's always drinking, shots, pints, he takes drugs, and these are stereotypical things associated with the 'reckless' youth of today.

Hollyoaks
This clip has always disabled the embedding, grr, but click here for the link

The relevent bit starts at 1.17 - Hannah's in hospital suffering from anorexia. This illness is a stereotype illness for young girls, aged around 15 to have, and Hollyoaks used this. The clip focuses on how it causes splits in the family and the fact that many sufferers don't really believe they have a problem. Again, this is a fairly negative representation of the youth, as weight is always discussed. We are either obsese, or too thin - there seems to be little middle ground.

However, Waterloo Road is less negative, as many of the young characters are represented as polite and obedient.
embedding diabled, click here

This clip is set in school, so unlike Skins, Waterloo Road represents school life instead of the social life. Most of the students reply and seem polite, 'it's the best room in the school,' really appreciating the effort the teachers have gone to for them. However, there is one student who fits the given stereotype. Rude, arrogant, with the 'I don't care attitude,' who doesn't respect his dad at all. Something adults often associate with the youth.