Essay CI Media

1. What are the social implications of the ways in which different media represent social
groups? (50 out of 50 marks)
Cultural theorist Henry A. Giroux argues that in media representations of young people
‘youth becomes an empty category’ (1997) which reflects the anxieties and interests of
adult society. From this perspective media representations of the collective identities of
young people are constructed by adults, and serve the needs of adult society. This approach
to youth identity and the media raises several questions about the relationship between
media and collective identity which will be explored in this essay. Contemporary film,
television, and print media representations of young people appear to consistently reflect
an adult perspective. The collective ‘identity’ of young people constructed by media
representations arguably has a social function. Charles Acland considers this question in
‘Youth, Murder, Spectacle’ (1995) his study of the cultural politics of media representations
of delinquent youth. Acland argues that ‘Order has a key function: to reproduce itself.
Youth in crisis, youth gone wild, is a central site in which this activity of reproducing order
takes place.’ In this essay I will explore the ideological implications of media
representations of young people, and argue that such representations construct rather than
reflect youth identity. The purpose of these representations is, as Acland argues, to
maintain social order.
Historical representations of young people can be understood in relation to Giroux’s view of
youth as an empty category. The post-war era saw the emergence of a distinct youth
culture. Media representations in the 1950s and 1960s reflected and exploited social
anxieties about the teenager. The JD (juvenile delinquent) movie cycle of this time reflects
the anxiety of adult society, whilst appealing to a younger audience through its depiction of
teenage delinquency. Arguably the most famous of this cycle is ‘Rebel Without a Cause’
(Nicholas Ray, 1955). Whilst the film focuses on a group of out control teenage delinquents,
the film also contains those anxieties. Young people in the film are represented in relation
to crime, knife fights, and theft. However the film ends with its main character Jim
symbolically reaching adulthood. He covers his dead friend Plato with the iconic red jacket
he has worn throughout the film. The jacket’s redness signifies the excitement and danger
of adolescence. Jim’s father then puts his own gray jacket onto Jim, suggesting that Jim has
now become a man. At this point Jim introduces Judy to his parents, the movement into a
heterosexual monogamous relationship another signifier of Jim’s acceptance of hegemonic
values. In this context the representation of youth constructs it as an identity which is part
of the formation of hegemony, rather than a challenge to it.
Whilst historical and contemporary representations of young people appear to represent
them as disruptive threats to social order, in reality it appears as if these representations
work to maintain hegemony. The media reaction to the ‘mods and rockers’ riots of 1964
can be understood in this context. The Daily Mirror described the rioters as ‘the wild ones’,
and claimed ‘1000 fighting, drinking, rampaging teenagers’ had ‘invaded’ a seaside town.

2. Yet Stanley Cohen’s moral panic thesis suggests that the function of the deviancy
amplification spiral in media coverage exaggerates events. For Cohen the effect of a moral
panic is to ‘clarify normative contours and moral boundaries’ of the society (1972). In effect
media representations of young people have, as Acland suggests, policed the moral
boundaries of what is acceptable and unacceptable in a society.
Contemporary British media representations of young people have been dominated by
discussions of a perceived lack of respect, and the figure of the ‘hoodie’. Fiona Bawdon,
author of ‘Hoodies or Altar Boys’ (2009), a study of newspaper representations of teenage
boys argues that newspaper photographs of teenage boys wearing hoodies have become a
‘visual shorthand for broken Britain’. The study of local and national newspapers
throughout 2008 of teenage boys found that the majority of stories focused on them as
criminals. The term used most frequently to describe teenage boys in newspapers was
‘yobs’, followed by ‘sick’, ‘thugs’, and ‘feral’. These overwhelmingly negative
representations can be understood in the context of Acland’s argument that media
representations of delinquent youths actually maintain rather than disrupt the social order.
For Acland the media image of the deviant youth ‘helps patrol the boundaries’ (1995) of
what is acceptable within a society. Acland argues that media representations of out of
control youth help to maintain the boundaries of hegemonic society. He also suggests that
as youth is ‘the time when the culture is learned’ there is ‘substantial surveillance’ of young
people to maintain the social order. Media representations of delinquent youth allow for
what he calls ‘the ideology of protection’, the idea that young people must be constantly
monitored and controlled.
Contemporary British film representations of young people both reflect the wider media
representations of the ‘feral hoodie’ stereotype, and can be understood to maintain
hegemonic society. In this context the media could be understood to take the role of what
Althusser calls ‘ideological state apparatus’. For Althusser ideological state apparatus such
as the media produce willing compliance with ruling ideology. Certainly the ideological
implications of contemporary British films such as ‘Eden Lake’ (James Watkins, 2008) and
‘Harry Brown’ (Daniel Barber, 2009) appear to unambiguously reflect middle class values.
The critical response to both films is revealing. Christopher Tookey reviewing them for the
right wing ‘Daily Mail’ took the view that they were both important films which reflected the
reality of modern Britain. More liberal critics have criticized the representation of young
people in the films as exaggerated and one-dimensional in ‘The Guardian’, and ‘The Times.’
The NME branded ‘Harry Brown’ as ‘pornography for Daily Mail readers’ (Nicholls, 2009).
However, arguably the more important unifying feature of the two films is the issue of social
class, rather than age. Greg Philo argues that these representations reflect the middle class
fear of those who might threaten their security (2009). ‘Eden Lake’ establishes the middle
class nature of its main characters in the opening sequence of the film, and then contrasts
them with the violent working class youth they encounter. Whilst ‘Eden Lake’ reflects the
middle class’s fear of working class young people, as they torture and then kill the middle

3. class couple ‘Harry Brown’ can be seen as a revenge fantasy in which working class youths
are tortured and killed by the elderly and respectable Harry Brown. Both films draw upon,
and add to, the media construction of British youth identity in relation to the figure of the
violent, disrespectful, working class hoodie. Angela McRobbie has applied the concept of
‘symbolic violence’ to the representation of working class women in contemporary reality
British reality television, suggesting they play a role in the reproduction of a class society
(2004). This concept can also be usefully applied to ‘Eden Lake’, and ‘Harry Brown’. The
depiction of working class youth in both films as vicious, and psychotically violent, helps to
maintain the social order. It works to reinforce middle class hegemony by contrasting
supposed middle class values (respect, decency) with working class values (violence,
disorder) in a way that suggests any threat to middle class dominance would lead to social
breakdown. Furthermore, the films also legitimate what Acland calls ‘the ideology of
protection’, feeding into wider social debates about ‘broken Britain’.
On the surface E4 television series ‘Misfits’ (2009-) appears to fit in with these media
representations of out of control working class youth. Vanessa Thorpe writing in ‘The
Observer’ suggests ‘Misfits’ is part of a wider trend in British drama about a ‘repellent
underclass’ (2010). According to academic Sadie Wearing these programmes represent ‘the
reemergence of a vicious discourse about class’ (2010). Whilst the representation of young
people in ‘Misfits’ draws on stereotypical imagery of working class British youth, it also
employs television genre to produce a more sympathetic representation. By giving the
teenage protagonists super powers the programme is able to represent the characters in a
more positive way. Unlike ‘Eden Lake’ and ‘Harry Brown’, both of which have a clearly
adult, middle class perspective and protagonists, ‘Misfits’ is undeniably constructed from
the perspective of the teenage characters. Furthermore, in the first episode the ‘monster’ is
the authority figure probation worker. He rants about disrespectful teenagers whilst being
depicted as a rabid horror film monster. Whereas ‘Eden Lake’ uses the teenage hoodie as
the movie monster, in ‘Misfits’ the monster is the hegemonic adult’s violent hatred of young
people.
Whilst ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ represented youth as a troubled stage on the way to adult
hegemony, both ‘Harry Brown’ and ‘Eden Lake’ take more pessimistic viewpoints. In ‘Harry
Brown’ delinquent young people are destroyed because of the threat they pose to
hegemonic society. In ‘Eden Lake’ working class youth are represented as a threat to middle
class security. Both contemporary films must be understood in the wider context of
consistently negative British media portrayals of working class youth. All of these
representations reinforce hegemony by depicting working class youth as a threat to social
order. ‘Misfits’ employs similar imagery but offers a more positive view of young people.
Arguably this can be explained in relation to institutional factors. Whereas ‘Misfits’ is
produced for E4 a niche audience broadcaster aimed at young people unlikely to commit to
watching a series that repeatedly portrays them negatively, ‘Eden Lake’ and ‘Harry Brown’
needed to attract as wide a possible audience. In order to do this they employed the

4. imagery of mass media representations of youth. It is clearly significant that mass media
products represent young people in such negative ways. Gerbner’s cultivation theory
approach to media effects suggests that the repetitive nature of mass media messages can
influence people’s perceptions of the world over time. From this point of view consistently
negative media images of working class youth may influence the way in which young people
are perceived, perpetuating
The media representations I have considered have generally reflected a middle class adult
perspective, reflecting Giroux’s view that youth becomes an empty category in media
representation. Furthermore contemporary films such as ‘Eden Lake’ and ‘Harry Brown’ can
be seen to play their part in the reproduction of social order, in line with Acland’s view that
the media spectacle of youth violence maintains hegemony. Whilst it would be naïve to
suggest that mass media representations don’t reflect reality to some extent, it appears that
the category of ‘youth’ in representation is constructed for ideological means to reinforce,
rather than challenge, the social order. Despite this, technological developments of the last
decade now offer young people the opportunity to construct their own representations and
respond to mass media representations. The democratization of media production and
distribution through the proliferation of media technologies and emergence of web 2.0 sites
offer greater scope for youth to construct their own representations of their identity.
However, these representations will always struggle to compete with the reach of the mass
media.