Normalisation of youth austerity through entertainment: critically addressing media representations of youth marginality in Britain
- Submitting institution
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Canterbury Christ Church University
- Unit of assessment
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output identifier
- U34.007
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- Youth marginality in Britain: contemporary studies of austerity
- Publisher
- Policy Press
- ISBN
- 9781447330547
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The chapter engages with media representations of young adults defined as ‘vile products of welfare in the UK’ within both current reality TV series and the tabloid press. The study focuses on the imagery constructed and the use of language to label this stigmatised group of young adults. Blackman took the theoretical lead and was responsible for critically applying the theory of the ‘normalisation of austerity’ though humour to the data. The research builds on the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) approach to critically engage with mainstream perspectives. The chapter is integral to the central theme of the book, which is to advance diverse data sets, and establish the voices of young people in opposition to their social marginalisation within contemporary media, culture and society. As an editor and author Blackman’s contribution is to contextualise social and cultural theory, literature and research on multiple youth deprivation at a personal and structural level.
Methodologically, the analysis was shaped by a reading of media representations of young adults who feature in the reality TV programmes and then cross reference them with their appearance within the tabloid press. The research was undertaken using textual analysis and film theory - for example the ‘fourth look’ - to decode the representation within tabloid newspapers. The work challenges the ‘negative’ labels placed on these sets of people through both media representation and within government policy statements. Blackman’s innovative approach is informed by the historical and contemporary theorising of young adult marginality through an engagement of the concepts of Thomas Malthus and Charles Murray, Loic Wacquant, John Westergaard and then through the ideas of Durkheim and Agamben on anomie and the state of exception. This offers new ways of looking at youth austerity through the contradictory lens of humour and mockery at a political level.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
