Contemporary Media Issues

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hoodies-louts-scum-how-media-demonises-teenagers-1643964.html

• We found some news coverage where teen boys were described in glowing terms – 'model student', 'angel', 'altar boy' or 'every mother's perfect son'," the research concluded, "but sadly these were reserved for teenage boys who met a violent and untimely death.
• Figures show more than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional newspapers in the past year (4,374 out of 8,629) were about crime. The word most commonly used to describe them was "yobs" (591 times), followed by "thugs" (254 times), "sick" (119 times) and "feral" (96 times).
• At the same time a survey of nearly 1,000 teenage boys found 85 per cent believed newspapers portray them in a bad light.

Areas of Theory

When applying theory you need to approach it from 3 perspectives:

Representations of youth (Giroux, Acland, Hebdige)

Effects of these representations (Gerbner, Gauntlett)

The role of media representations in society (Gramsci, Cohen, Althusser).

Key Points

In your essay you need to explain the effects of media representations of youth (maintains social order) and link this to the texts we have studied.

(you could consider the way contemporary British representations reinforce hegemony by portraying working class young people negatively).

You then need to consider the wider effects of these representations on how people perceive young people.

Gramsci 1920s/1930s
Developed the concept of hegemony 



Hebdige (1979)
I believe media representations of young people portray them as either fun or trouble. 

This represents young people as criminals and as though they have something to hide. In the media they are made out to be something to be scared of. 

Acland (1995)

Media representations of youth maintain social order/hegemony and ideology of protection. 

He sees media representations of anti-social youth reinforces hegemony.

Gerbner (1986)

The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend 'living' in the 

television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television.

He thinks that the repetitive nature of television means that over time television influences how 

people see the world. 

Gould (1999)

Gould identified 6 stereotypes in the medias representation of youth

Rebellious

Artificial tribe

Sexual

Nihilistic

Violent

Self-destructive

(2012)

The middle class corporation are threatened by the youth of today as they feel they are taking over. The use of the police in the title, as if it is a quote, will make readers believe that it is a big problem.

(2013)

The youth are referred to as feral witch makes them sound like animals or criminals running riot. This again shows that media corporations have anxiety towards the youth and feel they need to be controlled. This will then spread moral panic throughout society.  

Giroux(1997)

Youth becomes an empty category in representation – reflects adult concerns.

 Media representation of youth does not reflect reality of youth identity.

Giroux argues that in media representations youth becomes an ‘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).

Cohen(1972)

Cohen 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 that 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 they have become a contemporary ‘folk devil’, perhaps tapping into economic anxieties, concern about a benefits culture, and long term unemployment.

Stan Cohen wanted to dig deeper and researched the social reaction to the Mods versus Rockers disturbances in 1964.

 In his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) he noted the front page outrage in the national press e.g.

•“all-day clashes”  “Wild Ones”

•“ rival gangs”  “day of terror”

• “seaside mayhem” “battlefield”

However Cohen in his research could find little actual evidence that such clashes between rival groups of motorcycle-scooter gangs actually took place.

The only violence he found witness to involved regional rivalries not bike gangs.

He argued that the press reports were distorted, wildly exaggerated and portrayed a false picture of what actually went on.

Cohen argues identified 3 distinctive elements in the media reporting of events:

a)Exaggeration and distortion: numbers, damage caused, violence...

b)Prediction: that further conflict and violence was on the cards

c)Symbolisation: the symbols of the youth groups were all negatively labelled and associated with deviance

However the media outrage SPARKED a series of interrelated responses:

Wilkins

 Spiral Less tolerance…………………………………leads to………. more acts being defined as crimes…………leads to………. more action against criminals……………….leads to………. more alienation of deviants………………….leads to………. more crime by deviant groups……………….leads to………. less tolerance of deviant groups by conforming groups………

Althusser

Ideological state apparatus

Dominant ideology reinforced through different groups including the media.

Divides social institutions into two 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.

Gauntlett

Media has some influence on how people understand identities.