When it comes to representation, don't be shy, put some more! Ok, I'm done with the cringe-worthy TikTok references; but really, a more accurate representation of certain groups in the media is extremely important. Proper representation of a collective in the media is important
Media & Collective Identity
Essential Question - How Gen Z (specifically Gen Z high school students) have been represented in the media and how that representation serves to create a collective identity of the group as a whole.
Case Studies
In 2019, HBO premiered an ambitious teen drama by the name of “Euphoria” starring Gen Z pop culture icon Zendaya. The series follows the troubled life of 17-year-old Rue, a drug addict fresh from rehab with no plans to stay clean. The show depicts Gen Z as a bipolar, immoral, lonely, confused, and yet empathetic generation. The heavy depiction of teens easily accessing and consuming illegal substances helps strengthen the unfounded stereotype that many Boomers and GenX believe about Gen Z consuming more drugs than their previous counterparts. In reality, studies by the Centers Of Disease Control & Prevention and the American Addiction Centers have found that Gen Z has the lowest consumption of drugs such as Marijuana and Cocaine than previous generations. In addition, similar studies have found that Alcohol is also losing its appeal for Gen Z, along with sex and driving. Euphoria’s inaccurate and isolated representation of Gen Z in these activities creates false expectations for parents and fuels common negative stereotypes. 
However, Euphoria also heavily represented the role of sexuality in the Gen Z age and the mental health struggles associated with Gen Z high school students. Supporting characters int he shows include: Jules, a transgender girl searching for where she belongs; Nate, a jock whose anger issues mask sexual insecurities; Cassie, whose sexual history continues to haunt her; and Kat, a body-conscious teen exploring her sexuality. Since Gen Z high school students are growing up and being shaped by a world that understands gender and sexuality as a fluid concept, more teens are bound to question and explore their sexuality, something which is clearly represented in the show. Similarly, it is reported that Gen Z has the highest levels of mental health disorders and feelings of “loneliness” from any other generation, features which are extremely prominent at a high school level. Euphoria presents this generational struggle through its character development and plot, tackling the anxiety-ridden day-to-day life of a Gen Z high schooler with empathy and candor. There is an immense amount of representation, both accurate and taken right form John Hughes’ playbook of stereotypes, in this show but its efforts to represent Gen Z in a “raw” fashion are admirable and a step in the right direction for more accurate and holistic representation. 
The 2019 show “Sex Education” by Netflix depicts the everyday lives and crazy adventures of a set of horny teens in a modern high school in England. As with Gen Z and every single generation before them, sex is an appealing activity that may be constantly pricing teenagers’ minds. Sex Education does not strive to represent Gen Z as “hornier” than the adults in the show (which would be inaccurate as previously stated), in fact, the show does a good job at proportionally representing multiple age groups’ sex appeal; it is groundbreaking in its representation of non-traditional coupling in Gen Z high school students, showing traditional couples, interracial couples, and LGB couples. The show also celebrates the ethnic diversity found within Gen Z. It is widely accepted that Gen Z is the most diverse generation to date, however, that diversity isn’t always represented in media productions. The show is set in a small diverse town where their differences in race and ethnicity don’t seem to even be intently acknowledged. This doesn’t deter the different backgrounds on-screen to celebrate the richness of their cultural identity, it just enhances the detailed representation of Gen Z. 
Though generational drug use is decreasing, Gen Z high school students are undergoing a vaping epidemic. The number of Gen Z high school students who have vaped has alarmingly doubled every year for the past 3 years. In response, the US Food & Drug Administration created launched a campaign titled The Real Cost, targeting adolescents aged 12 to 17 years to prevent and reduce tobacco use by describing the true impact of smoking. In recent years, that campaign has shifted to include vaping. The FDA releases PSAs that depict Gen Z high schoolers vaping and becoming alien-like and brainwashed; addicted machines who escape their friend group and studies to vape. The intent of the PSA is good and the message is certainly important for Gen Z to hear. However, strictly using negative representation to cause concern in teens can also mislead parents and communities. 
This is one of the largest protests in American history. It took place on March 24, 2018, when approximate 1.5-2 million students descended on Washington DC to protest in support of legislation to prevent gun violence in the United States. The March For Our Lives demonstrations took the world by storm, drawing the attention from all sorts of news outlets. With the exception of the typical bias and outrageous claims by Fox News, the news media presented this protest as an awe-inspiring demonstration of courage and strength from Gen Z high school students. Late-night show personality Stephen Colbert remarked the protest by jokingly stating, “I was just reading on twitter how all teenagers are lazy and entitled” while presenting news clips covering the event. The news coverage was international as well, as millions of students from across the globe walked out in unison. The overall representation of Gen Z from this event painted modern teens in a positive light as activists, change-makers, and defied “undriven/lazy” teen stereotypes that were handed down from the Millenials. Typical representation tropes associated with Gen Z
The media representation of Gen Z high school students seem to embrace at least one of the following stereotypes:
•The Druggie– consumes and may abuse illegal substances (or vaping) that stump their energy and ambition. Often the douchebags or the overly relaxed characters. May stem from family complications. Sometimes presented as being sexually promiscuous.•The Unmotivated– Lazy and uninterested in putting in much work to their academics or life. Prefers the easy way out.
•The Emotionally Unstable– Struggling with some sort of mental illness or suffers from high anxiety/stress.
•The Activist– Independent, courageous, speaks out for what they believe, influential among their peers, inspiring.
• Tech Addicted– Unable to detach from technology. Agil with tech solutions but unlikely to socialize in their physical environment even with their own family.
•The Entitled –seen as desperate for attention, an attitude of supremacy (especially to adult authority figures). Sometimes presented as being sexually promiscuous.
The social implication of representation
The representation of a collective in the media can have a profound and lasting impact on consumers and, thus, on society.
The representation of a collective can create stereotypes that shape and influence the public’s perception of the represented group. These stereotypes may be inaccurate or founded without evidence which means they might place a burned on the people they convey. For example, Gen Z high schoolers are often represented as “druggies”, consumes and sometimes abusers illegal substances (or vaping) that stump their energy and ambition. These characters are often douchebags or overly relaxed characters, even sometimes being presented as being sexually promiscuous. In the 2019 HBO show Euphoria, the heavy depiction of teens easily accessing and consuming illegal substances helps strengthen the unfounded stereotype that many Boomers and GenX believe about Gen Z consuming more drugs than their previous counterparts. In reality, studies by the Centers Of Disease Control & Prevention and the American Addiction Centers have found that Gen Z has the lowest consumption of drugs such as Marijuana and Cocaine than previous generations. But the inaccurate representation of the show helps to reinforce a pre-existing notion that transcends Gen Z but that is no longer true.
This type of reinforcement can lead to people creating a hostile feeling towards the stereotype, which can lead to discrimination. For example, it could lead to future age discrimination against Gen Z for opportunities as they enter the workforce. Some people feel uncomfortable giving responsibility to Gen Z high schoolers because of their preconceived notion that they are unmotivated and involved in drugs or vaping, a notion that is reinforced by representation like the one found in Euphoria. As more Gen Z enter the workforce, they’ll have fewer opportunities available to set themselves up for success, which can have a set of social and economic repercussions itself.
The media’s representation of a collective also helps develop a sense of collective identity within the represented group. In 2018, international media turned their attention to the March For Our Lives march on Washington D.C. and around the world, where millions of students protested gun violence in the United States. The overall representation of Gen Z from this event painted modern teens in a positive light as activists, change-makers, and defied “undriven/lazy” teen stereotypes that were handed down from the Millennials. Positive representation from the march for our lives coverage created more student interest in teen-activism. Shortly after, millions of students more organized climate change strikes around the world to protest global warming and the lack of policy to address it. These events and those to come, fight unfair stereotypes and create a collective identity of activism for the whole generation. This collective identity helps people find themselves in the context of a larger body of individuals and how they fit into or stand out from the whole.
A sense of collective identity that isn’t all-encompassing in its representation can have a toll on individuals' mental health or on the group’s morale. If someone feels like they do not fit into a group they feel they are supposed to, they might experience higher levels of anxiety. Shows like the Netflix Original “Sex Education” are helping promote a more complete representation by representing non-traditional coupling in Gen Z high school students; showing traditional couples, interracial couples, and LGB couples. The show also celebrates the ethnic diversity found within Gen Z, helping enhance the representation of Gen Z in the media landscape through inclusion.
Lastly, a developed sense of identity has an impact on the future of the represented group. If people see themselves represented, they are more likely to believe that they can do or accomplish what the character that resembles them is portrayed as doing. This helps shape the representation of future groups and of the collective identity of those who are already represented. The very point of media representation is to achieve a more accurate depiction of society in the media we consume and empower underrepresented minorities.
Overall analysis
The collective identity of Gen Z and Gen Z high schoolers is mediated by the media. The representation of a group dictates how society should view the group and what role the group should play within society.
Historically, every generation has common stereotypes and tropes associated with them during their youth. Most of those stereotypes are shared between generations and seem to be reinforced by the media created by generation previous to them. However, in the digital age, we are creating more content and consuming more media than ever before, which provides abundant opportunities for those stereotypes to be solidified through inaccurate representation or defied through the ease of content creation and distribution available to teens now. Gen Z is unlike any generation before it; they are the first digital natives, the most diverse generation in history, and the most progressively thinking generation since the Beat Generation. The common tropes for teenagers simply do not fit Gen Z as it did their past counterparts, Gen Z high schoolers are defying the teen stereotypes that they have inherited, but it is accurate representation of this defiance that will truly impact the future of society and help establish and develop a clear and precise collective identity for Gen Z.
How that accurate representation is achieved is slowly but surely being revealed. Millennials are creating more honest representation in the content they’re producing, specifically in that which involves Gen Z. News outlets have had to report on incredible stories involving Gen Z’s collective effort towards a goal or mindless pursuit of an online challenge, which is undeniably providing a more precise yet perhaps confusing representation of Gen Z as a whole. Collective identity, specifically that of Gen Z, isn’t black and white, it’s a complex and intricate representation of a group. This is why it is highly likely that the media produced by that same group to explore their collective identity will be the ultimate mediator of the latter. After all, online distribution has made it easier to disseminate information faster and to more people effectively. For example, TikTok is a platform where videos can be shot, edited, and shared effortlessly and it's Gen Z’s current preference for sharing videos that help develop their collective identity. The opinion of groups and generations that are opposed to this new model of representation are soon to be irrelevant as they, for lack of better words, die off. Gen Z is taking advantage of the technology they have available to dictate their own representation and thus create their own collective identity through the media.
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