ROSS KEMP ON GANG TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

In this episode, Ross Kemp takes a step back in a more home bound direction to South London, and the area in which he grew up. Ross looks into the uproar in Gun and knife crime being committed by teens and slowly more younger offenders. Examples of victims who had fallen to gun crime in South London were Adam Andre Smartford (shot at an ice skating rink), Michael Dosunmu (shot in his bed) and Billy Cox (shot in his house by someone he knew). Ross Kemp caught up with Peckham councillor Nick Stack who outlined that Peckham is improving as it has been giving a regneration scheme worth millions of pounds. He also outlined that he acknowledges that parents are asked to work long hours but recieve no beneftis towards the upbringing of their children, and this has to be addressed. Finally, he said it was imporatnt that the Peckham community takes actions for the crime that is taking place within it and not expect the police and governemnt to sort it out. This appears to make no sense, because without police and government support, how would the Peckham community be able to have offenders locked up and crimes prevented to save lives?
Ross also spoke to Frank Lardan, an ex Peckham Boys gang member, who joined the gang at the age of 11 as the 'youngsters coming up' to take over from the older members. Frank began selling drugs to junkies before one of them stabbed him and tried to mug him for the drugs. He stated that in Peckham he has seen "11 year olds carrying mac 10s" and that guns are easy to get hold of, being provided by the government. One significant point to draw attention to is that Frank estimated a mac 10 fiream costing around £2000-£3000, so how is that young black people are obtaining the money to purchase them? Frank was also right in saying guns cannot be legally purchased behind a counter, and that the governemnt/army must be behind it, and I find this a very interesting theory.
A sweet shop in the area called Hao Wah was shown selling replica fireamrs, which can easily be transformed into real ones with the right knowledge. I believe a link can be made between these replica firearms and Frank's theory, as only someone with a particular degree of knowledge in firearms (e.g. army) would be able to give instructions on how to convert them. Macintyre disagreed with Frank's theory saying "peckham doesn't want any firearms, so why would the governemnt be behind it?" I think he has missed the point that what Peckham wants and the Government wants could be parallel, and maybe the Governemnt is secretly suppressing largely populated black areas in London in a similar appraoch to the flood incident in New Orleans.

ROSS KEMP ON GANGS (PART 1)

BULLET BOY SYNOPSIS

Within the Bullet Boy trailer, the beginning is very dramatic with armed police officers breaking down the door of Ricky's flat, pointing automatic rifels at him, his mother and younger brother whilst interrogating them. The trailer moves on to a clip where Ricky's younger brother Curtis is teasing him saying "You might find it hard to gain anything with a criminal record. Ricky is also shown having a good time at a rave with his girlfriend and ice skating with her saying, "I stay around here, people are just gonna drag me back in." Ricky's friend Wizdom is a typical street thug with doesn't share the same ambition as Ricky to leave their criminal pasts behind them, justifying himself by saying "I ain't leaving the manner - I ain't got nowhere else, I don't know nowhere else." Wizdom reflects the typical mind state of a modern day young black male growing up in Britian, restricting themselves to particular areas of London due to the rise in postcode wars derived from gang culture (e.g. The Bloods and the Krips). Unlike Kidulthood, Bullet Boy can be seen to show crime for what it really is, and the harsh consequences that come along with it, such as the police raid, but more importantly Wizdom, and even Ricky the protagonist, both loose their lives because they didn't apsire to improve them.

KIDULTHOOD TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

The Kidulthood trailer contains a mixture of anti-social activities commonly accosiated with young black people growing up in Britain. The trailer depicts characters Alisa and Becky girls snorting cocaine, including the consumption of weed by the school bully Sam and protagonist Trife. There is another short clip where Alisa and Becky are with Trife's friend Jay stealing alcohol from an off-license, and then gulping it down carelessly later on. Trife's other friend Moony complains about his burger at a take-away outlet saying " I told them no onions!!!" before picking up the burger and throwing it at a member of staff. Trife, Jay and Moony force their way into school bully Sam's house where Jay takes out a condom and openly has sex with her before throwing the used condom in a fish tank within the room. Alisa's friend Becky is shown preparing herself to peform oral sex for a split second, and Sam is furious to find Trife, Jay and Moony in his house, and the trio beat him up and Trife photographs Sam's injuries on his phone before they run away. Trife is sometimes donning a revolver, where as Sam is donning a baseball bat. The kidulthood trailer plays up to most of the stereotypes presently used to portray young black youths in Britain, with the issue of violence being videod and posted on forums for 'entertainment', smoking,drinking and sex under the age limit, the carrying of dangerous weapons and the general disrespect shown to those in authority. Kidulthood to some extent glamourises these issues and makes them attractive to a young audience, as these young people on screen are shown as being comletely free to committ these offences with no restrictions.

BULLET BOY TRAILER

KIDULTHOOD SYNOPSIS

Katie is bullied by school bully Sam, who sends her over the edge and causes her to committ suicide. The suicide leads to the following day of school being cancelled, so Trife, Jay and Moony take advantage of the opportunity to get up to all kinds of antics.

Trife is facing some hard situations, his uncle is tempting him with the gangster lifestyle of girls, drugs and fast money by working for him, and Trife's girlfriend Alisa is rumoured to have slept with the school bully Sam and is now pregnant with what is believed to be his child, when in fact it is Trife's.

Katie's older brother Sam is out for revenge and to find out who was responsible for her suicide, while Alisa's friend Becky is interested in nothing more then taking her on a drug sniffing, alcohol guzzling spree with some added sexual antics. With everyone heading to the same part of the night, it's guaranteed that things will get ugly...

BULLET BOY SYNOPSIS

Ashley Walters (former So Solid Crew member Asher D) plays Ricky in this re-potrayl of his life. Ricky has just been released from prison for a stabbing which he committed as a teenager, and is desparate to get his life back on track. However, his best friend Wizdom,hot tempered and quick on the trigger, gets into a dispute with a local thug. Once again Ricky finds himself siding with his best friend and being sucked back into the life he hoped of leaving behind in the past, and his younger brother Curtis is soon to become a part of the violent circle when he discovers his brother's revolver.

KIDULTHOOD TRAILER

CHANNEL 4 PRESENTS: FALLOUT (COMING SOON)

Greetings all, I would like to share with you something that I found out yesterday (Wendnesday 21 November 07) while reading a copy of the London Lite newspaper (Yup, the bothersome men in purple jackets, you all know who I'm talking about!). There was a section on one of the pages about Channel 4's plans to axe current programmes such as Big Brother in order to make way for a line up of new shows, and one of these new shows being aired next year is "Fallout" which will explore the rise in gun and knife crime amongst black youths. Definately keep your eyes peeled for this one next year, as it may reveal some interesting findings.

"BLACK-ON-BLACK" CRIME

Just passing through on the blog with another point which I feel is relevant towards my crircal research topic. The term "black-on-black" is used frequently by british news industries and is used to describe either acts of violence or anti-social behaviour between two black offenders. It is a fair point to say that 9 times out of 10 a white criminal or offender will be reffered to as a 'gun man' or a 'drug dealer', but a black offender will be reffered to as a 'black male' as if the emphasis on the colour of the offender being black is a crucial trait which needs to be stressed to the public. With this in mind, it may also be fair to say that the british media as far as the news is concerned like to create a type of 'scare' amongst the public that all black people are to be feared because they are all potential criminals if not already, as this is the image being depicted of them on hourly news schedules.

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT DUE TO THE NATURE OF MEDIA/FILM STUDIES SOME CLIPS MAY CONTAIN SWEAR WORDS. DO NOT WATCH THESE CLIPS IF YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE OFFENDED BY SUCH LANGUAGE!!!!!!!!!! P.S. THE ROSS KEMP EPISODE PART 1 IS A PRIME EXAMPLE

MY HYPOTHESIS

Focusing on British media, is it fair to say they glorify the contrast between urban street crime and young black youths?
Case studies to support this hypothesis include:
1) Bullet Boy trailer
2) Ross Kemp on Gangs - South London episode (part 1)and (part 2)
3) Kidulthood trailer
As i am focusing on British media, I have specifically chosen these three case studies to analyse in my critical research as they are all British productions and focus on the young black youths within Britain.

RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

The research techniques I have used so far with my A2 Media Studies Critical Research consists of the following: secondary research (The internet and soon I will hopefully have access to past or present newspaper articles) which could then contrast with Quantitative Research (research with figures).
At the moment I am relying mainly on Secondary Research techniques to achieve what I am working towards so far, but I am considering taking up my own primary research in the form of questionnaires to get the feedback I need for my chosen topic, or just use the blog as means of getting feedback.

ROSS KEMP ON GANGS - SOUTH LONDON (PART 1)

BULLET BOY TRAILER

BULLET BOY SYNOPSIS

Bullet Boy (released in cinemas 2004) stars Ashley Wlaters a.k.a. Asher D (memeber of the former UK Garage group So Solid Crew) and follows the story of his character 19 year old Ricky and his younger 12 year old brother Curtis. Ricky has just finished serving time behind bars in youth custody for stabbing another teenager, and is determined to stay on the right side of the tracks, but his plans are crushed as his hot headed friend Wisdom sparks off a minor confrontation with a local rude boy which quickly escalates into an on-going street clash. It's not long before Ricky finds himself with a revolver tucked into his tracksuit bottoms with death hanging over his head, and his younger brother being sucked into the violent spiral unfolding. Once again, this movie has an all black cast and looks into urban street culture as far as crime is concerned, with both Ricky and Wisdom loosing their lives because of a silly feud Wisdom had with the local rude boy for accidentaslly smashing out his tail-light when reversing.

MY CRITICAL RESEARCH - CRIME AND MEDIA

After careful consideration and decision making, I have decided to base my critial A2 Media Studies Research on "Crime and media" centered around how young black people are shown to glorify crime on the big screen. To begin my brief exploration into this topic, I have uploaded the trailer for the movie entitled "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" which stars Curtis Jackson a.k.a. Fiddy Cent.