The headline was
''London riots one year anniversary: Young people want their voices heard''
Under the header they still use an image that puts a negative label on youths, but uses a person of authority walking in front of the flames.
The article uses words such as senseless violence, criminality and copycat violence to describe what happened during the riots. Using the phrase senseless violence makes the riots sound like those causing the commotion didn't take into consideration the after effects of what they are doing, while copycat violence makes it seem like the youths and others taking part were doing it because they wanted to fit in and copying off what everyone else was doing would allow them to do this and feel accepted rather than standing out for doing nothing. The article still uses the word hoodies to describe the appearence of the youths, again giving a negative of them. One part of the article reads ''rolling news showed 'hoodies' in pitched battles with police, looting and setting fire to cars''. This puts the image across that all the rioting was caused by all the youths.
Further down the article it then goes into talking about the young people voicing their opinion one year later. The Metro say they asked four young people from Brixton-based youth-media hub to give their view on what happened. They ask these four youngsters what its like being a young person these days and what their plans for the future are.
The first young person, Celeste houlker, 21, said 'The riots have shaped the way young people are perceived today, but many of these perceptions have existed for a very long time. The nation is constantly told young people lead lazy, easy lives, that we binge drink, we're materialistic, our exams are easy and we're self-destructive since we're killing each other left right and centre. The riots engrained these perceptions even more'. From this quote we can see clearly that this young person doesn't follow other typical youth expectations language-wise as they used more complex words such as perceived, materialistic, engrained and perceptions. Words of which many stereotypical 'youths' would of never heard, therefore putting a more positive look on youngsters education-wise and not seeming as s'stupid' as people think they are.
They then stated 'But here's the thing, the majority of young people didn't take part in the riots. Why? Because despite these perceptions most of us are brilliant human beings doing great things for ourselves, were not all criminals'. This statement from the youngster gives their opinion straight and defends the young teen culture. This statement has a strong view towards teenagers and makes those reading the article have a second thought about how they are perceiving 'youths'.
During their last sentence from the interview she says '..students are striving to do well, while many are volunteering in their community as peer mentors and youth leaders.' From her statements she manages to prove a point about young people having high ambitions and doing work to help the community, not to tear it apart.
The second young person to speak for the interview was Zindzi Rocque Drayton, 22. She stated the following. 'Before the riots I was optimistically applying for work experience and jobs, eager to make use of my fresh English degree.' She proves her point from this sentence that not only do young people have the ambition and chances to graduate from university and education, but they still try to continue making the most of their education and what they have learned by applying for jobs rather than throwing it all away.
Her second words were 'As the year progressed my hopes of a graduate job diminished as I was rejected from the retail Christmas temp positions and with no paid work since graduating fro university I signed on to Job Seekers Allowance - £30 of my weekly £50 went on travel so that I could work full time, unpaid, in the name of ''experience'' From her point here she proved that she is still struggling and in need of help just like many others, yet still she has determination. Again showing that young people still need help and don't all go vandalising and causing havoc when they feel aspects of their life are going downhill.
The third interviewee, Christian Adofo, 23 stated 'Young people were portrayed in a negative manner and the images looped on TV didn't dispel the stereotype and as a result young people have been blighted by the riots. The vast majority of young people are challenging their enthusiasm into something positive, yet the good work doesn't get exposure.' He stated later 'So I've become more politicised in response to the media and ruling classes making sweeping statements about young people and the riots. my message would be: we're here, talk to us, listen to us so we can all learn from last summer and create something positive from the wreckage'. From his statement we can see he is blaming the media for young people having such a negative label and passes his message on as a way of trying to encourage media to give young people a fair chance instead of portraying the 'youth' stereotype to all young people.
The final young person to be interviewed was Ellas Wachenje, 13. His comments were 'When I left my house the day after the riots, reality hit - Brixton High Street was trashed, Foot Locker was burned out, Gamesmaster was smashed up and Currys was empty of all technology'. This section described the view of the damaged the riots had caused from a young boy's point of view, with popular shops which attract boys to, such as Gamesmaster and technology in Currys showing his individual desires have been wrecked, something that he is thankful for being there has gone, showing he is against what has happened with the most popular shops to him being completely wrecked. He then speaks about his thoughts on how the riots were portrayed. '..It wasnt just young people it was adults too. Yet the police, government, media and public blamed young people and turned us into the bogeyman' This again links to his first statement and the anger he felt not only with stored being wrecked, but also with the way his youth culture has been portrayed. Due to him being the youngest his opinion is still similar to the others and even states that adults were taking part aswell, which is something the media never mentioned straightly, all the articles and broadcasts were all focussed on young people and youths. His final words in the interview were the following. 'Now it's summertime again and it's important that young people go to youth projects and get off the streets during the holidays. The riots took place during the summer, when young people are bored, so we need to occupy our time productively. If I could speak to David Cameron I'd say, 'focus on this country', because while youth clubs are closing and jobs become scarce, the spent £1.25bn in Libya' 'I hope the whole country is united through London 2012, gets behind Team GB and feels like they are part of it even if they don't have tickets' These final parts of his statement come across very strong from what he has said, stating figures that David Cameron spent proves that he has intelligence and can learn easily, rather than how the media make it look, like young people don't pay attention to the important factors and cant focus.
Overall, from this article I feel that how the media have portrayed the London riots has not been fair to young people and youths as from the statements from this article it is obvious that there is a larger number of young people who have a strong, clear, good head on their shoulders and having the media making them look bad can reflect on their future goals. If these articles were produced at the time the riots happened then young people would feel like they have a much fairer say on things and the public would have been seen in a different light this past year.
You can read the full article here
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