1. Is there a class
struggle
underpinning
the
representation
of Youth
Culture?
What Examples from
past/present and future
texts can you draw upon to
support your answer?

2. Marxist
Response
• A Marxist would argue
that the problems
associated with youth
culture are underpinned
by them being oppressed
by the bourgeoisie.
• The lack of power that the
working classes have in
society has led to a ‘status
frustration’.
• Youth’s are rebelling
against the values held by
the upper classes (children
should be seen and not
heard)
• To what extent do you think
this is true?

3. Miliband’s Interpretation of the media
representation.
• “Given the economic and political context in which they
[the mass media] function, they cannot fail to be,
predominantly, agencies for the dissemination of ideas
and values which affirm rather than challenge existing
patterns of power and privilege, and thus to be weapons
on the arsenal of class domination” (Miliband 1973:211)
• Basically Miliband is suggesting that the media serve to
perpetuate and reinforce dominant ideologies that govern
society by re-presenting society through the eyes of the
bourgeoisie.
• How could we link this to Stanley Cohen’s theory of moral
panics?

4. Exam Practice:
Incorporating Theory
We need to tackle the question
step by step. Incorporating
theory.
Analyse the ways in which the
media represents groups of
people?