Representation Of Youth

David Gauntlet - 'Ideas are not given, but are constructed and negotiated'.

06/08/11 - The first sings of a 'riot' was in Tottenham and Tottenham Hale.
07/08/11 - By 19:45 they had escalated and there were news reports of 100 hooded youths gathering around the Police Station and a mob was reported. The headline on the news footage says LONDON VIOLENCE and the reporters are saying 'police are powerless' and are talking about the violence 'erupting'.

08/08/11 - 23:20 - there is violence in Nottingham is reported and at 23:27 There is further reports of rioting in London in the TESCO stores, and this is where the infamous Basmati Rice picture was taken.

09/08/11 - The Fire Brigade faced its busiest night in recent history, with fires springing up all over the country, especially in London. At 09:55 the friendly match between England and the Netherlands, which was scheduled for the following night, was called off, due to security fears. At 11:06 David Cameron makes his first official statement about the riots.

These are some of the news articles that were reported during the riots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53XnvNOR5EU - This news report was on behalf of Russia Today, making it seem as though this has evolved from a peaceful protest into a criminal act which the whole world sat up and looked at. The reporter at first is stood in front of the crime scene, talking about the riots in general, and then goes onto interview members of the public who are at the heart of their communities and felt that they were in a position to speak about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIYnZW7EIWE&NR=1&feature=fvwp - this news report was for another foreign broadcaster, showing again how big this 6 day event was seen, both by the British and those overseas. They use the headline 'London's Burning'. This headline and the following ones using words like violence, looted and ablaze, makes it all seem sensational and making it, possibly, bigger than it really should of been.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qEjDjtujaQ - this was a British news report on the 07/08/11, just after the riots happened. It interviews David Lammy MP, a man in power, who can have a direct effect on what can happen through Parliament, which makes him a person of responsibility. It shows you footage of the police lining up, and the youths who were rioting on the other side, as if they were two armies, waiting to attack. The reporter who is doing the voiceover calls one of the streets a battleground, making it seem less of a riot, and more of a war.