Henry Grioux states that the media representation of youth is an empty category. This is because the representation shows the views of those who are representing youth rather than the youth representing themselves. Collective identity is an individuals sense of belonging to a group with a shared set of values and ideas. The media select only a few aspects of the group they are looking at - for example youth - and decides how to represent those few ideas, not showing them exactly as they are and changing things and showing their perception. The media use this mediation to reinforce hegemonic views and maintain their dominance.
Quadrophenia (1979) represents the popular youth subcultures of the 70's, the mods and rockers. When this came out it offered a new kind of media for the youths to enjoy and relate to, as it was created not by the typical middle class male media, but by someone central to the mods movement. This is important as it goes against hegemony and shows that pluralism exists in the media, giving something for the youth to relate to rather than be pushed towards conforming to typical middle class rules. Hebdige (1979) stated that youth subcultures are a way for young people to express their opposition to society and challenge hegemony. This view is expressed in Quadrophenia, as it shows the youth using the social groups of mods and rockers to rebel against common views and be a part of something that society does not really understand, or think is right. This was done through taking part in activities and doing things that were not - and still not - socially acceptable. This includes violence, sex and drugs frequently. This creates a collective identity that everyone in the two movements acts out and goes against the law in quite a strong way. However, although there is this negative view put forward in Quadrophenia, dominant hegemonic views are also evident. The most prominent one is that the mod youths have a weekday job and work for the weekend, reinforcing the idea of making a living and contributing positively to society. The film also shows that the middle class and authorities are still in control when it came to violence, with the police being prepared and ready at the Brighton riots between the mods and rockers. This film paired with the frequent news coverage of the riots puts forward a very negative view of the youths partaking in the mods and rockers movements, focusing on their violence. This therefore put forward the idea of a mean world, where not everything is good as this was one of the first youth subcultures to rebel against society and hegemony.
Around the same time as Quadrophenia and the mods and rockers movement, Grange Hill came out (1978). This show strongly went against the rebellious themes in Quadrophenia and reinforced the fact that the middle class adults were in charge. The program shows a range of different ages going to school and following the rules of the middle class adults. This represents the Gerbners Cultivation Theory that the children are being controlled by the dominant class from a young age at the same time as Quadrophenia, a rebellious anti middle class film came out. The drip drip theory also relates to Gerbners theory as it states that from a young age people are fed dominant ideologies through the media in order to make them conform to them. Although there is some slight rebellion in Grange Hill from the older children, they still conform to authority by turning up for school and following the rules.
The youth shown in Harry Brown (2009) is violent and terrorises the community. This reflects the dominant ideology that London estates signify violence, gangs and attacks. This film shows the youth to be the ones in charge and running the estate through enacting fear, playing on the moral panic in British society that youths in hoodies and from certain backgrounds are bad, and show a negative role in society. Cohen states that moral panics are created by the middle class in order to retain their dominant position and reinforce hegemonic views in society. The dominant view that is put forward shows the youth to be bad, and older people to be weak and frail which is giving the middle class middle aged the power. This relates to Greg Philo's theory that if you are not middle class you must be a hoodie, which is represented in Harry Brown as all working class characters use violence at some point no matter what their age. The only middle class characters are the police in Harry Brown who try to take control of the situation. This film relates strongly to the way youths are presented in the news, showing the violent minority, and causing a moral panic. This is heightened at the end of the film when the mob of youths start a riot against the police, showing the middle class control to be weak and the youths to be powerful and strongly going against hegemonic views of the ruling class.
The 2011 London Riots were strongly reported by the news, and it focused on the negative way in which the youth was behaving, and causing disruption in cities. This added to and intensified the moral panic of hoodies as they only represented the youths in one way, which the public passively accepted and believed causing youths to be seen in that dominant way, maintaining the hegemonic values of the middle class keeping them in control. The focus was on the youths rioting for no reason, silencing the youths that were acting out as a result of education funds being cut and making it harder for the working classes to get into education. One BBC news report from 8th August 2011 showed a man expressing views that the riots were inevitable due to the way youths have been represented as a moral panic, which caused them to eventually act the way people expected due to the mediation by the dominant middle classes. Initially, social media was blamed for the riots in terms of people getting together and organising loots and attacks, which in turn caused another moral panic which even led to the discussion of popular networking app BBM being cut off to stop gang organisation. However, Professor Proctor found that this was not the case, and in fact social network was used more to clean up the disruption than it was to organise thuggery.
David Gauntlet said, Identity is complicated everybody thinks they've got one. Social media allows people to express themselves and show their identity without being mediated by the media. Instead, you self mediate creating a image of yourself exactly how you want. For example with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter you choose you profile picture depending on the composition, lighting, makeup, what you are doing and most likely to enhance and distort it with a filter. You are more likely to use a carefully constructed image as your picture rather than one of you taken on a night out looking rough. YouTube is also a way for people to express themselves both visually and by verbal communication to a community. However, it has its limits as the majority of the videos on YouTube are barely view due to them only reaching like minded people. Due to the media companies dominating YouTube with mediated content, most everyday user generated content will not break through into popularity. Self representation through the use of social media can be used positively to help people rally together for a cause. For example, #nomakeupselfie that went around Twitter and Facebook created awareness for Breast Cancer, encouraging people to donate and take part. This contrasts to the view the media had on social networking during the London Riots. With the development of smart phones it is becoming even easier to access the internet anywhere at anytime giving people more access to self representations and more ways in order to self represent themselves.
Representations are becoming further away from reality, therefore resulting in representations in media becoming more and more extreme. This links to Jean Baudrillard theory of hyper reality and that simulation of reality has no basis on reality. Where different identities have been represented and mediated in the process. the future representations will be based on current representations, meaning they become further from the truth. Another extremity is that the more media dominates the everyday world, the more blurred the distinction between reality and fiction becomes. Guy Debords (1967) said that saturation of social space with mass media has generated a society defined by speculation rather than real relations. This paired with the increasing use of CGI in films putting the emphasis on visual aspects creates a ideal that people expect and that reality cannot match.
In conclusion, the media play a very important role the construction of collective identity as they choose what aspects of certain groups they are looking at, therefore creating a dominant view of that group - in this case youth and that they are violent and need to be controlled by the middle class. However, with the increasing access people have to the internet and ability to self represent themselves, people will become more aware of the areas the media does not show through mediation. But, with the increased use of media, the representations become further from reality, creating a new world that has a basis on previous representations, not reality.
