Exemplar 2

What is the aspect of youth culture being examined in this script?

Violence is the aspect of youth culture being examined in this script.
What is the speaker’s opinion on representations of this aspect of youth culture?
The speaker’s opinion on representations of this aspect of youth culture is negative.

Structure Persuasive techniques used to

Opinion position the audience to accept
Ideas used to support opinion the speaker’s opinion
Knowledgeable cultural critic, Wendell
Berry, once said, “Violence breeds
violence. Acts of violence committed…
prepare and justify its continuation”.
200,000 homicides are executed by youths
aged 10-29 years old each year. This is our
future generation, a generation desensitised
to and active participants in antisocial
activities. A generation that has become
victim to the media’s ignorant preaching of
violence as an inconsequential, trendy
behaviour. I, ____________, a 16-year-old,
have witnessed first-hand the effects of
these representations; the anger bred, the
hatred instilled, and the violence
worshipped. I am glad to have a platform
here, at the Australian United Nations
Youth Voice, to reveal the destructive
nature of media glorification of aggressive
behaviours. Exposure to such violence
encourages core values of violence within
youth culture, normalising acts of
aggression and instilling the principle that
partaking in harmful behaviours resolves
issues. As a result, youths develop imitative
violent behaviours, which if not addressed,
will contribute to the recurrent cycle of
violent crimes within society. Media, a
vehicle of mass influence, exercises
pernicious manipulation over the highly
impressionable teenage demographic
through films, video games, and songs
which glamorise violence.

Films have become a fundamental

foundation of our society, evolving into a
powerful instrument for entertainment,
education, and act a means of connecting
with other individuals. Through the
representation and glorification of teenage
violence, they have the power to influence
the culture and ideals of our youth. Youths
are the backbone of our nation and are
active viewers of these negative media
representations. Gang violence and warfare
on the streets is subconsciously endorsed in
classic teen films such as ‘Boyz n the
Hood’. The movie’s depiction of teen-on-
teen violence as an effective means of
resolving petty disputes strengthens youth
perceptions that status and respect are
gained from such behaviours. In the film, it
is the environment of violence that the
young protagonists are frequently subjected
which instigates their own aggressive
behaviours. As young children, they
stumble across a dead body, another lost to
the rivalries of gangs within the
community, decaying, and abandoned on
the street. This is one of the many instances
where they are exposed to violence and its
devastating results in their neighbourhood.
Such can be likened to the environment
films create within modern society. Rowell
Huesmann, an expert in the field of
psychology states, “exposure to violence
in…movies…increases the risk of violent
behaviour on the viewer’s part just as
growing up in an environment filled with
real violence increases the risk of them
behaving violently”. When someone has
wronged you, violence is the solution.
When someone insults you, violence is the
solution. When someone threatens you,
violence is the solution. These are the
values we are teaching the youth – your
children are being brainwashed by mass
media to believe violence is acceptable. The
breeding of these mentalities has the
capacity to trigger imitative violent
behaviours and juvenile crime. Reform is
needed. The media must address and take
responsibility for their harmful portrayal
and glamorisation of teenage antisocial
behaviours for the sake of our youths’
futures.

Blood and massacres. Hyper realistic

murder. Personalised killings rewarded.
This is the reality of teen video games.
Through parental neglect due to busy
lifestyles, youths are left with their virtual
babysitters, unsupervised, developing
harmful obsessions and absorbing appalling
behaviours. Call of Duty, a highly popular
videogame series, has an extremely large
teenage following, with 62% of young
gamers reportedly playing the war game.
The simulated battlefield endorses brutality
through its blatant depictions of torture,
child combat, and shooting of unarmed
citizens, providing incentives for acts of
violence - the gorier the better. This
communicates to its young viewers that
violence is socially acceptable and has little
to no consequences. As a result, youths
become desensitised, manifesting practiced
behaviours in their personal lives, and
acting on violent impulses. Validating these
statements, Birkbeck University of London
affirms, “[teens] who play violent video
games…then engage in violent behaviour,
or even copy acts of violence experienced
during game play”. Is this what we want? A
generation of callous individuals who use
violence to manage conflict. The media
incites hostility within our youths; that is
the harsh reality. Now is not the time for
complacency. It is time for game
developers and media giants to own up to
the damage they are causing society
through their glorification of aggressive,
pugnacious behaviours.

Music is a media type where virtual

violence meets real-life. No longer is
murder and bloodshed purely fictional, a
prop on a movie set or a simulated war
field. Music poses as a medium where
celebrities are able to simulate acts of
violence, often based on reality.
“If you saw what I did that day in
Brookmill Park you’d stay at home,
I backed my blade I grabbed his neck,
I splashed him down I felt his bones”.
Need I say more? The message is in the
music. The message is clear. Violence is
acceptable. The actions described in this
song by Lucci are an actual account of
crimes he has personally committed. Yet,
the song remains uncensored, readily
available for youths to download at their
pleasure, no restrictions. The American
Psychological Association describes the
harmful consequences of such unrestrained
content in their statement that, “aggressive
music lyrics increase aggressive thoughts
and feelings, which…perpetuate aggressive
behaviour...influencing listeners'
perceptions of society and contributing to
the development of aggressive
personalities”. Idolising advocates for
violence, teens consequentially mimic
destructive behaviours, typically adopting
the mentality and values of their malicious
leaders. As a result, 46% of youths have
identified rap music as being the founding
media type which inspires thoughts of
committing crime and their execution of
criminal fantasies. This viral strain of music
infects the minds of helpless youth,
endorsing their pursuit of crime and spiral
delinquency. Greater media monitoring and
censorship is a necessary step we must take
as a collective force to ensure the safety of
our teens, and ultimately our safety as a
nation.
Restricted but not enforced, it is time for a
change. Movies, videogames, and music act
as a vector for youth development. Movies,
videogames, and music all unequivocally
glorify violence. Such an unchecked culture
of violence ingrained within the media
poisons the malleable minds of our youths.
This initiates their development of violent
imitative behaviours and demonstrates the
repetitive sequences of violence within
society. A cycle which stops with you. We
must confront this issue as a united front.
Together we must force the media to be
more critical of the explicit messages they
are conveying to teenagers, through
advocating for increased media censorship.
Increased censorship, reduced violence. Let
us raise our voices and fight for a brighter,
more harmonious future for our youth.