Theories

• Giroux (1997) argues that in media representations youth becomes ab 'empty category'. This is because media representations of young people are constructed by adults. Because of this they reflect adults concerns, anxieties and needs. As a result of this media representations of young people do not necessarily reflect the reality of youth identity. when applying Giroux to media texts you need to think about who constructed the representation, who it is aimed at, and does the representation reflect adult anxieties or serve the purposes of adult society (e.g. by reinforcing hegemonic values)

• Acland (1995) argue that media representations of delinquent youths actually reinforce hegemony. they do this by constructing an idea of 'normal' adult and youth behaviour, and contrasting it with deviant youth behaviour which is shown to be unacceptable. 

• Acland also claims that media representations of young people out of control allows that state to have more control of them (e.g. media reports about delinquent youths led to ASBO's). This is something Acland calls the 'ideology of protection' - the idea that young people need constant surveillance and monitoring. This happens because youth is the time when young people learn about social roles and values, and allows the state to make sure they conform to hegemonic values

• Hebdige (1979) studied British youth subcultures in the late 1970s. His work is more focused on the reality of youth culture, than Giroux or Acland who are concerned with media representations of youth. Hebdige argues that youth subcultures are a way for young people to express their opposition to society, and to challenge hegemony. This is primarily expressed through style. In this context you may consider how the working class youths' behaviour is a response to their position in society (e.g. the class envy of the characters in 'Eden Lake' who steal the signifiers of middle class wealth such ass the 4x4 and the Ray Bans).

• Hebdige also argues that representations of young eople are quite limited showing them as either fun or trouble. Again this suggests media representations of young people do not really relate to reality.

• Gramsci developed the concept of cultural hegemony. This is the idea that one social class (usually the middle class) is able to dominate a society by making their way of life and values appear normal, natural, and common sense. As a result other social classes accept these values as the normal way of life. Gramsci does see hegemony as a site of constant struggle - societies are constantly debating what is and isn't acceptable. You could relate this to the more positive representations of working class youth in 'Fish Tank' and 'Misfits' as representations which challenge the perception of working class as thugs.

• Cohen (1972) studied the media response to the mods and rockers riots in the 1960s. He argued that from time to time 'folk devils' emerge in a society which reflect the anxieties of society at the time (e.g. mods and rockers reflect social anxiety about the emergence of youth culture, rock and roll, etc) A moral panic occurs when the media reports on these 'folk devils' in a sensationalised way which leads to intervention by politicians, and the police. The effect of a moral panic is to reassert hegemony by allowing a society to make clear what values it does not accept. The representation of working class youths suggest that they have become a contemporary 'folk devil', perhaps tapping into economic anxieties, concern about a benefits culture, and long term unemployment.

• Althusser argues that one of the ways in which the state maintains control is through ideological state apparatus. This includes the media, education, religion, family. Ideological state apparatus are a range of different groups who transmit dominant ideology to the people, again maintaining hegemony. You could consider the extent to which the media representations we have looked at are reinforcing dominant values.

• Gerbner (1986) studied the effect of television on people's perception of crime. He found that people who watched a lot of television tended to overestimate the levels of crime. He called this 'mean world syndrome'. Because news reports, TV dramas, films, contain lots of representations of crime over time this influenced people's perception of the world. This is called 'cultivation theory'. you could apply this to media representations of young people. The large numbers of representations of young people as delinquents could, over time, influence how they are perceived by society.

• Greg Philo - argues that contemporary 'hoodie cinema' reflects middle class anxiety about the threat to their dominance posed by the working class.

• Cohen - deviancy amplification theory - media hype phenomenon - a moral panic meaning that a lot of people started to believe this representations which they saw in the media. this view was viewed in a negative way, one event that stands out was the London riots in 2011

• Moral panic sometimes leads to more media coverage of this 

• a group of people who are seen as a threat to society

• Gerbners cultivation theory - primary preposition of cultivation theory states that the more people are linked to the media, the more they begin to believe it

• Acland - social order is maintained by views held by majority of the public - negative views which are sometimes false, allow the state to have the power (hegemony - order of authority)

• Todorov - equilibrium, dis equilibrium

• Anne Gould - b

• Giroux - giroux argues that in media representations

• Media has the power to create stereotypes 

• David Gauntlett - identity is now consciously constructed, and the media provides some of the tools to help us construct our identities. the media contains a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable life styles - at the same time the public have their own diverse set of feelings. The media and media consumers are engaged in a dialogue in which neither overpowers the others

• Fiske (1982) - 'denotation is hwat is filmed, connotation is how its filmed'

• Saussure (1983) - Audience can look at a media text from a syntactic point of view, just describing what they see, or from a representational or symbolic point of view where they attribute meaning to what they see.

• Barthes (1967) - an audiences' understanding of media texts come from their understanding and knowledge of frequently told myths or stories. He argues that the organisation of signs encodes particular messages and ideologies

• Chandler (2005) - says that semiotics is important because it helps us not take 'reality' for granted as something that can exist without human interpretation

• Stuart Hall - argued that meaning is not fixed by the producer, and the audience is not passive, gave us different readings, the preferred reading is where the audience reads it the way that you wanted them to

• David Buckingham - a focus on identity requires up to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups

• Steve Neale - 'Genres are instances of repetition and difference' (1980, 45)

• 'Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre' (1980)

• Tzvetan Todorov - 'Any instances of a genre will be necessarily different' (1985, 60)

• Lacey - 'Repertoire is elements' that work together to suggest genre and that these are a useful                                              framework to use for analysis'

• Gledhill - 'There are no rigid rules of inclusion and exclusion' (1985)

• 'Genre… are not discrete systems, consisting of a fixed number of listable items' (1985)

• Chandler - 'It is difficult to make clear cut distinctions between one genre and another; genres overlap, and there are 'mixed genres' such as comedy thrillers' (2000)

• Burton - 'each text is given genre shares particular key elements to make up the generic formula, these include; Protagonists, Stock Characters, Plots and Stock Situations, Icons, Background and Décor Themes'

• Rick Altman - 'there are two ways to look at genre, the semantic approach and the syntactic approach. The sematnic is casing that here are certain signifiers that suggest genre, such as the with conventions of characters, location,  props, shooting style, music and other signifiers. The syntactic approach is about the realties between these elements and also narrative structure'

• Baudrillade - hyperreality and mediation

• Henry Jenkins - participatorial and spectatorial

• Stan Cohen - moral panics (everybody has got involved in a smaller situation), deviance amplification (one deviant act triggers more deviant acts due to other people feeling that because one person is able to do it, they are also able to do so),  folk devils (certain groups of people can be dangerous and damaging towards the rest of the people)

• Gerbner - mean world syndrome/cultivation theory (people that watch a lot of TV over estimate the amount of crime in the real world, so by consuming media, people will over estimate how mean the world is)

• David Gauntlett - 'Identities are not 'given' but are constructed and negotiated'

• David Buckingham - 'A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are uses in everyday life, and their consequences for both individuals and for social groups'

• Gramsky - Society is run by the ruling elite (very small group of people) to make sure they keep their position. Therefore the media is run by a very small group of people who wish to maintain their status and position. Hegemony (Gramsky's theory)

• Steve Anderson - 'younger people are becoming a lot more empowered because of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging' - power is transferring away from older people in charge of producing media, to the audience itself (through social media).