How far were the responses of the rioters themselves given space in the media? In total, Reading the Riots researchers collated more than 1.3 million words in first-person accounts from rioters. Their stories paint a vivid picture of England's most serious bout of unrest in a generation. Particularly after the riots had occurred focus began to turn to rioters themselves as an almost explanation as to the reasons from their point of view. For example the Guardian states in December how "Rioters say anger with police fuelled summer unrest" from the youths involved point of view. However when researching interviews from the riots the mass media seems very police orientated with the majority of interviews centered around footage showing youths in a negative light with stories on how "Good Samaritans who robbed a Malaysian student"

Given the general framing of young people as the key participants in the events, how much space was given to young peoples voices- and what sorts of young people were given space to respond in the media debates?
Generally the main focus of news coverage during the riots was to do with the police or older members of the community and their opinions on the situaton. If footage was shown of youths it was generally in a negative light of them in action rioting such as the footage shown of a gang vandalising a police car with bricks and stones. Interviews were shown from youths but often with a negative point of view from reporters who often cut the youths of while speaking or interview youths who are steriotypically what would be expected. For example when interviewing innocent youths in Manchester who had just got off the train from a day out the reporter is very negative towards the youths and puts them in the bracket as the looters by saying "why don't you just go home then" when the youths are trying to explain that they are trying to but the police wont let them. This links in with both Cohens and Gauntletts theory as the reporter is making the youths appear as divients and constructing them to be what they consider to be as youths to show evidence of their theory that youths are negative. Through other interviews youths are shown who have negative reasons for looting such as "to piss the police off" which the mass media shows in order to show youths in a negative light as not all youths have this opinion yet it is generally shown by the mass media as thats what they want the audience to form an opinion of youths on.

To what extend did social media challenge or confirm representations of youth identity in the mass media during the time of the London riots? Discuss positive and negative points and discuss theory.
In various ways social media helped go against the negative representation of youths by being the tool which abled them to show their views on the events in a positive light. Social medias such as Facebook gave youths a voice in which helped people aware of their identity linking in with Foucaults theory, helped support the police with groups which people were able to join such as "help the police stop riots" and "the clean up" project sorting out the devastation of the riots aftermath. Social medias also helped go against the mass medias representation of them being perceived as negative linking in with Buckinghams theory by websites which challeged the typical representation. For example campaigns such as "not in my name" in which youths took photos of themselves holding a sign with these words as a way of going against the typical representation by the NCVYS. Websites continue to challege the mass media such as "Young and not dumb" and the "99%" website proving that unlike Gauntlett states the medias construction of youths can be contradicted. The way in which youths identity can be seen in a positive way through various technologies proves Buckinghams theory. The clean up programme braught cultures together linking in with Jenkins theory as the devastation braught others closer together as a culture.

However social medias also show youths in a negative light as they can be used as a tool in order to fuel the violence and rioting. For example BBM which 37% of British youths have was used to plot against the government by being capable of organising riots annonomously. This links in with Jenkins theory as youths were capable of forming a culture of their own by using technology as a tool to go against society. This also links in with Cohens theory showing youths as divients who go against society causing moral panic which left the option of shuting down BBM altogether in order to stop the rebelion. The use of BBM highlights the divients amplification given by the mass media showing youths in a negative light.