Ill Manors – Tedx Lecture Plan B

The TEDx Lecture by Plan B (Ben Drew) tells us about why young youths have problems in our society. Plan B talks about his lifestyle as he was growing up in a council estate, why youths behave is a negative way and their disadvantages, he also lets the audience see a glimpse of his new Ill Manors music video to promote his project and the whole concept of his film that he directed.

Plan B’s beliefs and political views are correlated to how young youths and himself grew up in council estates. When Plan B was ten years old he was kicked out of school and attended a pupil referral unit called the Tunmarsh Centre in Plaistow, he met lots of kids there with more troubled families and problems than him. Plan B and his new friends always discussed about young youths not having any respect for authority as they were felt not treated equally and isolated from their opinions. Tunmarsh was a place where kids went to be encouraged and motivated and to be told that they can make something out of their lives. All these children are from dysfunctional families who need to be guided into a positive lifestyle, as some don’t have families or have families who were abusive, alcoholic, drug addicts etc. Plan B felt that society ignored us as young youths and that we didn't belong to it as they would not hear us out, he believes that we should not listen to anyone except our favourite rappers which young youths are most aware off grime, rap genre music. Youths most relate to music if they are under pressure or seek for escape they turn to music which they seem to find freedom to, there are many rappers who inspire lots of individuals as they as artists who guide us from there powerful lyrics. There is music which can change pupil’s lives by listening to the lyrics and becoming successful instead of ruining lives, Plan B was a fan of hip hop music which encouraged him to become a soul/ rapper artist. However on the other hand grime/ rap music can show negative imagery of some of the words rappers use which influences young youths to do which give other audiences a negative rough discrimination about youths, such as being a gangster, murder, selling drugs and etc. Plan B saw this as an advantage therefore created successful music which has influential words, although the music had negative words which is inappropriate, Plan B says that’s the only way to attract the young youth’s audience to engage them into the music or else they would not be interested but his entire album have a meaning. Plan B understand children who behave negatively such as knife crime, robbery, drug use, because he feels children do this to seek attention as no one is guiding them or listening to them (Government). Children behaving negatively is not what Plan B wants he is totally against violent behaviour however wants to change them as he seen all this happen when he was young therefore can change their lives too.

Plan B believes that there is a demonisation of young youths through the media and the other audience are agreeing with what the media says, however Plan B strongly quotes if you do not have direct contact with the kids, then how the hell can you judge them?, I agree with Plan B as often people believe what the media says and discriminate people by their cover. Kids who live in council estates with family problems and kids who live with stable families are cauterised as kids from council estates are threatened by them as they discriminate the council lifestyle and isolate them. Everyone should be treated equal Plan B says however kids who need help often feel apart from the society which the government don’t take recognition about. Being pointed out as a odd individual just because you live in a council estate and don’t fit into the community makes kids feel demonised and unwanted, causing trouble. Plan B does not like the way the government treats young youths as they promise to help the society but not clearly do their job as they leave the troubled youths out.

More and more youths end up in the streets as they seek for attention and escape but have nothing to do; therefore they hang around with large groups who are seen as in a negative. This is because all the community centre has been shut down, the only place to socialise which has been closed down giving youths nothing to do. These kids do not have much money neither does their families to keep them occupied as others in their community therefore Plan B thinks the young youths started riots as they stole things that they thought society has made them feel are the most important things to become noticeable to the government. He tries to get a message across informing the audience that young youths need attention and care, they need support and to be heard by the government instead of being ignored making them do things such as looting to seek attention which get portrayed in a negative way connoting the audience all young youth are the same.

As Plan B is being the alternative ideology he is trying to send out a message about how young youth are being demonised by people calling council estate kids a ‘Chav’ a negative label to represent kid, these kids are being the dominant ideologies as the audience see them as negative people in society. Plan B wants people to help youths who are in trouble and less fortune, by talking to them showing they love and cares, making them feel family and equal to others.  He wants people to guide these children and seek for what they like doing, what they are best at doing making them have a good future and change their lives. By promoting his film he gets a wider audience to watch the film and understanding the different views people have against young youths, he wants people to realise the government does not do much to help these kid and they need attention and support to make them better people in the community instead of getting into negative issues which will take them nowhere in life. Plan B mentions Goldie who made a speech last year at TEDx lecture he mentioned Goldie’s words ‘There's one person out there, everyone in this room knows one person out there that they can help that is less fortunate than them, not financially with knowledge, plant that seed, find out what these kids are good at... so it changes their life, just how it changed my life’. Plan B mentioned this quote to inform the audience that young youths need help and that they are less fortunate than others beneficially.

The intended target audience for TEDx lecture would be Guardian newspaper readers who are adults/business workers around 24-45 years of age. The demographic social economic group would be targeted toward class B an audience who is in middle management, teachers, and creative and media people therefore would be interested in Plan B speech as he will be promoting a film and talking about society. I think both genders would be interested in this lecture as it appeals to both genders talking about issues of young youths, which as adults would relate to and understand how kids do feel. As Plan B’s project was filmed in the UK the lecture would appeal to the British audience more as it would be set in the UK. The psychographic audience that would be appropriate for the TEDx lecture would be mainstreamers and reformers as they both seek for security and enlightenment, both relate to the lecture as Plan B talks about society and how young youths can be successful in life and how they are demonised ideologies. This audience tends to be a large audience who are interested in value of money and awareness of social and independent judgement qualities. The form of synergy has been used to cross promote the Ill Manors film directed by Plan B, the film is promoted by the soundtrack in ‘Youtube’ which Plan B himself had produced. I know this is the intended audience by the TEDx lecture clip above; you are able to see the audience as Plan B makes the speech, and you are able to see how large the audience is and are able to tell the demographics of this audience. The audience Plan B targeted for the music and film are demographic of D and E class who are young adults 18-34 years of age, the music/film relates to a this audience because the characters in both music/film would be the same age which makes the audience relate to the characters more (realism). It would relate to unemployed, young teenagers who have problems in families and establish council estate lives. Also the psycho-graphical group would be strugglers as these characters seek for escape and need attention, both music/film alert the audience that these kids need to be heard therefore turn to violence. On the other hand as mentioned above the audience for the lecture is opposite as another audience group is involved, I think the lecture and promotion of the film and music video attracts to a wider audience which makes Plan B’s project more recognisable and successful to get his point across to the target audience  and the opposite target audience.

Plan B believes that the media demonise young youths and are discriminated unequally. He says that people read or watch the news/newspaper about young youths and the negative points therefore people believe everything that the media says is true (exaggeration). However Plan B says your jut judging youths based on something you have read or watched on the news, it is totally different from reading what the media says and talking to the actual youths. You can’t judge someone without having direct contact with them. This is linked to Cohen’s media theory of moral panics, when an event occurs because of its nature therefore the media decides it is worthy of dramatic coverage and making the society aware of the event. Furthermore the event is communicated around the community making more people aware of the event which in this case is young youth’s not giving respect to the authority which connotes people that young youths are a negative group. The ‘moral panic’ is then caused for the law to change rules which effect the young youths and make them seem unwanted and isolated by their society causing them to riot and loot to attract attention. People need to stop judging these kids by what they read. All they are looking for is support and guidance which Plan B mentions in his speech. Plan B refers to this when he explains how the media portrays a problem way bigger than it seem, he tells us how the positive points are left out and only the negative points of young youths are portrayed which threatens the society.