Giroux's theory

Giroux has been an important contributor to a variety of academic fields, including critical pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, and media studies. Giroux's views show how the youth are mistreated within the media. He describes the media's representation of youths as an 'empty category' which suggests that adults do not really understand what it is like to be a youth in this generation. Because of this, the media puts their own ideas into this 'empty space' of what they believe the representation of youth this. Therefore with the media involving only adults, the representations are widely affected as adults do not want their generation to look bad so instead use teenagers as a scapegoat to blame the issues actually caused by themselves. 

By looking at this theory we are able to see that the representation of youth is molded together through what adults believe and think rather than the reality of what teenagers are like. This then leads to the uprising stereotypes through the media, which has been the cause of moral panic spreading as adults do not know how to control this new youth behaviour. However, this has just been created through hegemony and the media pouring down their ideas onto adults and leading them to believe that teenagers are people to be afraid of and that they are monsters, when the reality is that they are just misunderstood. He see's the abandonment of youth in the neoliberal economy as a critical indicator of the new authoritarianism that has accompanied this project. He also advocates a re-commitment to community development and learning for social justice, equality and democracy.   

In conclusion, by looking at Giroux's theory I have been able to develop my understanding of how the media represent the 'new generation' of youth culture negatively in order to create a stereotype of teenagers. This prejudice displays how not only have the media created this 'monstrous' image of youths, but they have also led adults to believe that they are the cause of all issues that arise in the media. However, in reality these issues have previously been caused by adults who now have someone to put the blame on other than themselves and so protect their own generations image. Moreover, the media's representation have imprinted the idea that all youth's are violent and dangerous with no exception to this stereotype. In this sense, teenagers who may challenge this stereotype are victimised and judged straight away without anyone actually taking the time to understand and get to know them.