Consider the view that the current representation of teenagers is simply ‘moral panic’.

Moral panics are issues that are repeatedly shown within the media, and make audiences/receivers worried about their safety. In the past moral panics have been affective and audiences do tend to take on hegemonic values that are of production companies and subconsciously stereotype certain groups of people and certain places. In recent years teenagers have in fact simply been represented as a ‘moral panic’.

Knife crime, teenage pregnancy and ‘dumbing down’ are only a few of the issues revolving around teenagers these days. The worst of the three is knife crime which is dominantly associated with young black teenagers. This makes the audience fear this group of people, and stereotype them due to some knife related crimes associated with their race. We must also take into consideration the owners of these media texts, and their production values. The news must be bias, however with a great number of knife crimes relating to males of the black race, it is inevitable that the audience fear this group.

Other issues such as teenage pregnancy has also seen a rapid increase, despite the government making laws where the pill was made legal. Teenage pregnancies have mostly been presented though documentaries, which follow the lives of these young mums. These reality documentaries enable the audiences to perceive a oppositional reading of the issue. Where the dominant reading would be that teenage pregnancy is caused due to irresponsible behaviour and that the mothers are immature, some of the mothers they follow suggest a oppositional reading that some mothers plan the pregnancy and are rather mature.

However, regardless of these oppositional readings, predominantly, the representation of teenagers is that they are indeed a moral panic. The males are represented as ‘gangsters’ and ‘thugs’ according to the news associated with them, and the women are increasingly represented as promiscuous individuals.