Ill Manors broadcast platform: TEDx lecture

1) Embed the above video in your blogpost and read this Guardian article that accompanied the original event. Remember to also look at the comments below - these can give you a variety of different perspectives and criticisms to the original lecture.

2) Make notes on the lecture: focus on Plan B/Ben Drew's views on the opportunities for young people in London and how these inspired Ill Manors.

• Ben Drew lacked respect towards authority/hierarchy in his past, instead treating them with disdain.
• He believed that the root of the violence the youth resort to is because of the broken family they emerged from. These parents were abusive emotionally or physically who were nothing and told their children they would be nothing. 
• Plan B believes just one person could help an individual's life. He thinks we need more of these kinds of people to encourage this.
• The youth in our society could be helped remarkably with just some motivation.
• Music is Plan B's a way of communicating with the youth.
• He wasn't trying to glamourise violence in his work, he as trying to depict the brutal reality of it.
• He struggled desperately trying to get make 'iLL Manors'
• He dislikes the way the meaning of the word 'chav' has developed into something negative.
• Chav= council housed and violent (the way a 'chav' is conveyed.)

3) What are Plan B's beliefs/politics? What are his values/ideologies? Explain your answers.

Plan B thinks that the youth, in our society, are mistreated and judged prematurely by others. In the media, their acts of crime are taken hugely out of proportion, demonising them entirely. Ben Drew adopts a Marxist perspective, believing that the hierarchy we are controlled subsequently and indirectly encourages youth in our society to act rebelliously. He believes the government are part of the cause of this and they should attempt to do more to stop this vicious cycle of violence that youth tend to resort to. Elaborating on his marxist stance, he makes it evident that there is a power balance in society, varying from person to person. These individual differences such as being from a lower class, a dysfunctional family or specific area, contribute to why many young people turn to violence. He also blames the school system for implementing these wrong ideologies, arguing that those in higher power need to do more to stop it.

4) Who is the target audience of the TEDx lecture? Demographics? Psychographics? How do you know? How does this compare to the audience for his music/films? Is there more than one audience for this talk?
The target audience in the video appear far older than expected, perhaps this is because of the company that he is working with or perhaps because his typical targeted audience cannot afford to see this talk. Also, the talk is promoted by The Guardian which accompanied the original event. The Guardian  is known for its liberal, left-wing stance, suggesting that its readers share this same view. An alternate explanation is that he is not trying to specifically relate to the youth in this talk but instead trying to educate others who perhaps are misinformed or ignorant about the youth. This suggests that his audience are likely to be middle-class, white reformers who are open-minded and eager to expand their views. 

5) What does Plan B say about the media? Explain how this can be linked to Cohen's media theory of moral panics? Read this summary of moral panics and the definition from Wikipedia and use them in your answer.

The singer/song writer claims that the media focuses and over-exaggerate crime rates in the youth. He discusses how the dominant ideology of the media of the youth is that they have ill intentions and are solely negative. He believes that by stereotyping them as 'chavs' just because of their misfortunate of them coming from a less broken family, pushes them out of society into violence.These derogatory terms isolate these individuals out of a society and subsequently they resort to violence  It essentially creates a generation of people who have been alienated and rebelling. Moral panic can be defined as when a 'thing' emerges and is considered threat to societal values and interests. This 'threat' causes media hype generated over on issue which leads to moral panic. Plan B's talks about the youth and their crime being overly represented in media cause a reaction seemed disproportionate to the reality. This links to Cohen's theory as it is a prime example of moral panic amongst a group in the media.