Hegemony theory - mr halsey

Hegemony theory
The dominant or leadership; this is commonly by one state or social group over the others.
The Hegemony theory is a Marxist theory and was introduced by Antonio Gramsci and came up with this theory to see whom was dominant and who was subordinated.

Royal Family:

• All pictures of the Royal family shows them as prestige and role models as well as wealthy and the perfect family - no picture have been shown with them looking like they have any problems or like any other 'normal' family in Britain.
• The typical, dominant or hegemonic stereotype of the royal family is that they are good and society should follow their views and actions as they are the primary role models to the whole world.
• The royal family are always in the news and there is an awful lot of coverage on them - always representing them as good there is never something bad on them.
• http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/20/royal-baby-pictures-william-kate-george - shows how prestige they are as they are failing to look normal and obvious they are royal.
• The royal wedding was highly important and took over much of the news their showed the royal family as dominant and hegemonic as the whole of London had shut down solely for the royal wedding to proceed and thousands of people had gone to see it. 
• Furthermore, the royal families hegemony has been obvious as a new bank holiday had been introduced solely for Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding.
• Although, the royal family are meant to be role models for everyone and are known as the most hegemonic family in society articles seem to show different.
• Articles are different as they show alternative views of the royal family, for example changes over the years ..http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/may/08/queens-speech-changes-royal-family
• The previous post has a picture of Prince Charles and Camilla sitting next to the queen, this is significant as the chances of them sitting next to one another would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
• Many also debate on whether the royal family is beneficial to Britain or not - there are many diverse views ..http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-the-royal-family-bad-for-britain
• They are also shown as disrespecting and in some ways racist - Prince Harry dresses as nazi at friends birthday, however he apologises (makes it okay?) http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4170000/newsid_4171000/4171069.stm
  
  

Cultivation theory; top boy - mr halsey

In today’s lesson we watched the channel 4 TV teen drama ‘Top Boy’. Throughout this opening we were able to identify many different negative as well as positive representations of youths, these representations were evident through the characters. For example, there was youths hanging around on the corners of streets also their clothing portrayed the youth as untidy, not presentable and scruffy as their ties were down and they were wearing joggers and hoody’s. The uniform clothing was also a negative representation as they were not only presenting themselves but the school as well. However, there were also some positive representations throughout the opening scene on Top Boy. For example, once the young boy reached home he instantly began looking for his mum and could not find her therefore decided to stay home to wait for her. His friend also decided to stay with the boy in order to keep him company. This is a positive representation as it is evident that the boy is caring for his mother and his friend is sticking by his friend’s side.

Additionally, Top Boy is a prime example for Gerbner’s cultivation theory, the more the audience watch the representations in the TV the more they are likely to believe these representations in the real world. For example, there is drug dealing and swearing used by youths throughout the TV drama therefore giving off a negative representation as well as portraying youths as dangerous therefore audience may follow these TV representations which leads them into viewing black males as stereotypically dangerous. This would also relate to Alvarado’s theory as the youth that deals drugs is a black male therefore relating back to one of Alvarado’s characteristic for black people which is ‘dangerous’.