Do kidulthood and fish tank create a realistic representation of youth?

The theorist, Stuart Hall, once proposed the idea that the media itself "produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals". This leading to the point that ideological things within the world have become neutralized and due to this it can be seen that with the way youths have been portrayed in the media it can be seen that 80% of the time this is shown in a negative light.

This can be seen by looking at the two well known films of  'kidulthood' and 'fishtank' and how both films try to represent the different struggles that youths face themselves in today's society. They can also however both be compared to the 1950's film of  'rebel without a cause' and how in 1955 it was proposed that the representation of youth was accurate from the film, with the only rebel like actions in the film being that James dean is seen seeking out of his house at night, having illegal car races and drinking and smoking. However now comparing it to the films  'kidulthood' and 'fishtank, and with how they represent youths as going off to wherever they feel, taking drugs, getting involved in crime, getting pregnant at an early age and having knife and gun fights. well then you can see that if they are both true representations of modern youth then the media has every right to portray youth in the way that they do when looking at how there negativity has escalated since 1955. 

Another theory would be from David Buckingham and how he stated "A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups". This here showing how now in today's society of youth there are more problems that can be seen to relate back to the use of modern technology, such as within the film 'kidulthood' and how through out the film the use of mobiles to gather people for the part near the end of the film (consequently where trouble happens) and this also highlighting David Buckingham's theory that modern technology is used to cause more problems in today's society.

this view can also be backed up by the actions of youth during the London riots and how with the use of mobile phones and similar technology such as blackberry messenger and twitter (web 2.0) it made the chaos of the riots more difficult to control as opposed to the Brixton riots and how with less technology to spread the news it was handled easier. 

Another theory that can relate to the films and how they are a good representation of youth would be by Henri Tajfel and how his theory that "we strive to improve ourselves through improving our self esteem and this is done by believing that your social group is considered to be the in-group and not the out-group".

this theory relating to the film 'fish tank' and how the main character tries to improve herself by submitting a dance video later on in the film due to her feeling that she is not in the in-group after confronting her old friends who were dancing and seemingly fitting into the in-group instead of the main character. 

From looking at the two films and seeing how the media gives off the representation of youth it can be seen that from the medias point of view the films 'fish tank' and 'kidulthood' are indeed creating a realistic representation of youth.

however bearing in mind that due to the widespread popularity of these films it can be seen that although the films are only representing a small portion of youth it will be believed through the viewers that this is how all youths are portrayed and this is not the case even thought with the use of the media which seem to heighten the view that all youth should be represented in this way. This being done mainly by the tabloid media and how with newspapers such as 'daily mail' and 'the sun' referring to youths as slobs, hoodlums, scum and dysfunctional, the view of the common youth is focused even more.

Due to this it should be seen that in conclusion, yes the films give a realistic representation of the medias portrayal of youth, however due to them only representing a small portion of actual youth it is not realistic in representing 'youth' as a whole but is more successful at representing the 'media youth' and the 'correct' portrayal that the media has created.