Homework: Youth Culture and Theories

Effects Model (Lotz):
When a youth culture responds to media with a mimicked action.
Also known as the hypodermic needle model, it suggests media is being directly injected into the audience. The model suggests that media creates violence, however it is regarded as folk lore by media theorists.
It could be said that the Hippie movement in the 1960s is a good example of the effects model and how youth culture responds to media with a mimicked action. The Hippie movement was heavily influenced by folk music and political messages promoting peace and love, therefore the media surrounding these things was being injected into them. Although the Hippies discouraged violence, there were cases whereby they protested against leaders or major events which were happening. For example the famous protests that took place during the Vietnam War.

The Two-Step Flow Model (Lazarsfeld and Katz):
When a youth culture is influenced by an opinion leader.
Also known as the multi-step model, individuals look to opinion leaders in order to form their own opinions. This includes fashion, culture and music taste opinions. It can be in respected friend groups as well as famous people.
Ollie Sykes could be seen as an opinion leader for hipsters as he is a singer-songwriter (Bring Me the Horizon), musician, fashion designer and graphic novelist who is always up to date with the latest trends. He might design some new clothes or 'Tweet' an opinion about something and this would prompt many people of this youth culture to copy his style or take this opinion as their own.

The Uses and Gratifications Model (Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch):
When a youth culture has used media for their own enjoyment, to fulfill a specific need. or/and to communicate with others.
This approach explores the reasons behind why people actively seek out specific media outlets and content for gratification purposes. The model assumes that the audience are active in choosing and consuming media that meets their needs.
One would suggest that the YouTube youth culture (youths who keep up-to-date with Youtube stars, particularly British ones) are a good example of Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch's model. Avid users of YouTube select the content that they watch (for gratification purposes) which fulfils their requirements. So, a girl in this youth culture might actively choose to watch a beauty guru for their own enjoyment and to allow them to learn. This community also allows users who watch the same content to communicate with each other to enhance their entertainment experience.