A DROITWICH woman has become the country's leading authority on 'chav' culture.

The youth tribe ridiculed for wearing Burberry baseball caps, white tracksuits and acres of 'bling' jewellery has become so much a part of our culture that the word is now in the dictionary.

But Verity Jennings knows more about chavs than anyone after completing a dissertation entitled Chavs - Subculture Or Chavaphobia? for her Media Studies And Popular Studies course.

Verity Jennings, of Arkle Road, looked at newspaper stories featuring the word chav during the period from last summer to early this year, concentrating on the language used and the context in which chavs were mentioned.

"When I was selecting my dissertation subject, it was October or November 2004 and there was an explosion of stories about chavs," said Verity.

"I just wanted to understand the whole culture of it.

"I think chavs have been around for a long time, but known as different regional names."

The 22-year-old, who gained a 2:1 for degree at Leeds Metropolitan University and a first for the dissertation, had two theories.

One is that chav is a subculture that separates itself from society in the same way that the mods and rockers did in the 1960s, and secondly that it is term describing undesirable features jumped on by the media.

She started off by looking at around 800 articles from both tabloids and broadsheets before whittling them down to the 114 stories that formed the basis of her work.

However, Verity is keen to stress that she herself is not a chav. Her mother, Hilary, said she was very proud of Verity's academic success.

"I think I was vaguely aware of the word chavs - known as the youth tribe that wear Burberry check baseball caps - but I'm reading through her dissertation at the moment and I'm learning a lot more about them," she said.

"The dissertation is so enlightening and interesting - looking at the social side and the overall effect on society."