My Individual Study - SKINS

SKINS

For my individual study for A2 Media, I have chosen the television series, Skins. It is a teenage-based series, which focuses on issues that modern day teenagers face today, and these issues range from homosexuality to anorexia to binge drinking and drugs. Skins is a programme which success is due to the close audience relation, as it touches upon many familiar issues which British teenagers face. As I am a teenager myself, I felt it appropriate to chose my individual study on a media text that related closely to me.

For the individual study, I will be focusing on audience for Skins, as audience is an essential aspect of programmes such as these. Much like Shameless, Skins has a wide social and cultural representation, with a diversity of characters, for instance, the reluctant Muslim, Anwar to the ditsy, anorexic character of Cassie. This range of character implies the writers tried in engaging all areas of socially diverse Britain as it is today.

I will focus on audience and how Skins relates to today’s teenagers, in ways of character types, plot lines and character interaction, especially with one another and with parents and authority. Also I hope to analyse why Skins has been such a hit on e4.

To include the outer context of the study, I will relate Skins to the modern day representation of teenagers. This will include rebellion, binge drinking, hoodie wearing youths that are apathetic that couldn’t care less of their futures. These are connotations that our generation have received from the British media in recent years.

I will analyse two episodes of Skins to evaluate whether they are in keeping with their target audience and if they stick or break modern day stereotypes that teenagers bare.

These two episodes will most likely be two in which the most fragile issues are brought up, such as anorexia issues of Cassie or the conflict of homosexuality and Islam between the characters of Maxxie and Anwar.

Other than the television series, Skins has managed a number of media-savvy approaches to engage our “myspace generation”. Not only have they produced a comprehensive myspace page with added extra short episodes and various photos but have also created “real life” character myspace profiles to add to the realism and truly engage with their target audience. I will analyse this element of Skins and see how this has affected audience familiarity and engagement by using another media form.

For historical context, I may include older media texts such as Byker Grove or Grange Hill, programmes based at the same audience which touched upon serious issues such as teenage pregnancy, smoking and bullying. By this I can see similar audience pleasures from similarly teenage-based programmes, although based at a different youth culture. Also, I will touch upon modern media texts such as Neighbours and Hollyoaks, which come under the same niche market of teenage-based serials.

They all include issues of wider context such as the need to be thin, the teenage drinking culture and casual sex lives to name but a few.

Overall, Skins will prove to be an interesting media text to unpick and analyse.