Gerbner Theory

Gerbner 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 perceptions 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.

Acland Theory

Acland argues 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 the state to have more control of them (e.g. media reports about delinquent youths led to ASBOs). 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.
When applying Acland think about the extent to which media representations show young people as in need of control. Do the representations show young people as behaving in an unacceptable way? If so does this identify what behaviour society thinks is acceptable (i.e. hegemonic)? You may want to focus particularly on how the representations we looked at show working class youths to be deviant, thus reinforcing middle class hegemony.

Dick Hebdige Theory

Hebidge 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 as the 4x4 and the Ray Bans).
Hebidge also argues that representations of young people 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 Theory

Gramsi 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.

David Buckingham Theory

David Buckingham is a media theorist who believes that children and young people have identities that don't exist at all or are constantly changing. He studied their interactions with electronic media, and he believes that ,due to the constant change of media, identities are constantly changing. He believes that genre isn't simply given to a young person as part of their culture, but instead it is constantly being negotiated and changed. The media reveals the bad sides of the world and therefore parents keep their children indoors to hide them from this reality. Due to this, children spend far too much time around various types of media such as TV's and computers, and therefore learn too much about the world and are constantly going through change due to the amount of views, opinions and cultures that they observe.

In relation to the topic of nerds, this theory by Buckingham makes sense as nerds are known to spend countless hours using these various types of media. This media includes games consoles, computers and TV's. Out of all the social groups and genres that exist in the world, nerds will spend the most time using this media and therefore becoming exposed to what it contains. They will not witness this first hand as they are not known to spend a lot of time outside socialising, but the increasingly growing opinion that nerds are often the victims of bullying is evidence of the fact that they may look upon the world and it's features in a negative way. They may have bad experiences with other people and various types of media will help them communicate with people similar to them, which will allow them to gain an understanding of the world in a different way to others. Although nerds are the most likely to find increasingly detailed content on the internet, this may not be the case. Even though nerds do spend a lot of time around computers, they are not known to do anything with them but use them as gaming platforms. They play console games, computer games and internet based games. Their huge interest in this hobby restricts them from viewing content that can cause a constant change in their identities, which is what will be happening to most young people.

David Gauntlett Theory

Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. He specializes in studying contemporary media audiences, the every making and sharing of digital media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression.
Gauntlett published ‘Media Studies 2.0’ online in 2007, which argues that classic media studies fails to define when the categories of ‘audiences’ and ‘producers’ unite, and that new, altered teaching methods are needed. He states that because of web 2.0, we as audiences can become our own producers thanks to websites such as YouTube. Through this we can create our own identity and even influence other peoples.
Through this, gender identity for example, has become less constricted to previous representations. Web 2.0 allows us to create our own unique identity that doesn’t necessarily follow traditional understandings of gender. The ability and freedom that web 2.0’s allowed means it is now far more acceptable to be different and accepted for our individuality.

Stanley Cohen Theory

Stanley Cohen’s ideas stem from his study of ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’ in 1972. This study focuses on the way popular UK media and society reacted to the mods and rockers phenomenon.
Cohen is credited with coining the term ‘Moral Panic’ as a way to describe the way members of society or a culture becomes ‘morally sensitized’ to the challenges posed to their accepted values by the activities of a group defined as ‘deviant’
His theory underscored the importance of mass media in providing, maintaining and ‘policing’ the available frameworks and definitions of the ‘deviants’. The media is then able to create a moral panic through the way ‘deviants’ are portrayed.
Deviance Amplification is often utilised by the mass media when portraying ‘deviants’. This is the process by which the mass media exaggerate the extent and seriousness of deviant behaviour. This causes greater awareness and interest in deviance, which results in more deviance being uncovered. Thus allowing the media to report on the deviance more and more until a Moral Panic is created. – This could be viewed as a way for media, such as newspapers, to sell copies.
The media’s ability to create ‘Moral Panic’ means they are defined as ‘Moral Entrepreneurs’.
Cohen’s theory is based on Mods and Rockers but can be applied to any subculture labelled as ‘deviant’