How does the opening of Skins represent young people through it's use of media devices?

Intro - Skins shows young people as chaotic, emotional beings by reinforcing a common stereotype in the mainstream media.

Middle - Skins rejects this stereotype and creates a "humanised" representation that takes into account many factors and features multiple representations.

End - In conclusion Skins only represents young people in opposition to adult culture.

At fist Skins appears to support the prevailing stereotype of young people that they are unruly and anti-social. The title sequence shows this by featuring simplistic iconography (alcohol, cigarettes) as a quick and easy way of establishing the stereotype from the beginning.

The mise-en-scene of the girl's bedroom also reinforces this stereotype. It features clothes strewn untidily across the floor, and elaborate trinkets and decorations, the personality of that character is physically projected onto the set before she even speaks. The representation we gain from this is that the character (teenage girls) are very fashion-conscious and give value to their appearance. The scene with the other girl in her bathroom is highly sexualised, the camera tracks across her leg and she's referred to only in terms of her appearance, again this reinforces the same representation.

On the other hand the excerpt features many other young people, some of whom differ from the initial stereotype.

In conclusion Skins only defines young people in opposition to adults. The best example of this is with the music at the beginning of the extract. The style of music is deliberately used as an antagonism for the adult. In this youth are represented not with one single stereotype, nor with many different representations, instead each representation is presented with a common stereotype.