Theory

Theorist	Year	Concepts	Your explanation
Giroux	1997	Youth as empty category	The youths are blamed by others. In Attack the Block, even though the youths were the heroes at the end, they were blamed and arrested; the police assumed that they were in the wrong. They didn't create their own identity, the media do and fill in their category with fear and violence.
Acland	1995	Ideology of protection; deviant youth and reproduction of social order	Media representations of youths out of control allow the state to enforce laws and control over them.
Gramsci	1971 (1929-1935)	Cultural hegemony	Social Class struggle, how they are dominating their culture and society. The youths in the films Attack the Block, Harry Brown and Eden Lake are going against the middle class. They have a class of their own and are rebelling against them.
Cohen	1972	Moral panic	The media and the ruling class creates a ‘moral panic’ which is where the public fear what the media is representing. For example, these contemporary films, like Harry Brown and Eden Lake, would make the public very aware of the danger they face with these youths. The media go to extreme lengths to portray youths negatively. They are exaggerated mostly, to make public even more fearful of it. This keeps a cultural hegemony.
McRobbie	2004	Symbolic Violence	Not even recognised as violence, such as racism and gender bias. In the media and in the 3 films we watched it is dominated by men. Males are seen in a very negative light, even in Eden Lake Steve isn't seen as being macho because he can't stand up to a bunch of youths.
Gerbner	1986	Cultivation Theory	He examined the long term effects that TV had on American audiences. This could relate to British audiences, when they watch the films like Harry Brown etc. they may get a shock and become very scared and change their behaviour towards youths that they see in Britain.