The Cultivation Theory.

The Cultivation Theory looks at the TV as a social agent, and studies the effect of TV exposure. The Cultivation Theory states that high frequency viewers of TV are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. For example, heavy viewers are exposed to more violence, and are therefore affected by The Mean World Syndrome. This is the belief that the world is actually a far worse and dangerous place than it actually is. Heavy viewers take away such strong messages whilst watching TV, and therefore begin to think that real life is like that. The Cultivation Theory states that when people view certain behaviours and attitudes, they will start to replicate these in their everyday life. 

The Cultivation Theory can be applied to the representation of age. For example, older people watch more tv and therefore are more likely to be susceptible to the messages. An example of this is that young people are constantly shown to be involved in violent or dangerous acts on the news or on other shows, so therefore older people stereotype all young people as violent and aggressive, because they believe what they have seen on the television. The television has blinded them to the fact that just because a few young people may have been involved in that crime, doesn't mean that all young people behave in the same way. This also gives older people the impression that the world is a mean place in which there is nothing but violence, and this is the given impressions because the news and other programmes constantly show the bad things that young people do, rather than the brilliant achievements some young people have achieved. 

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jul/04/riot-defendants-court-sentencing

This article in The Guardian about the 2011 Riots shows young people in a very negative light, and shows how older people may believe that young people are all violent. This article talks all about the riots and gives facts about how many people were sentenced or imprisoned. It used facts and statistics to reinforce the point that there were 34 children between the ages of 10-17 in which were remanded in custody, and this reinforces the stereotype of young people being violent as older people will view this as a lot of young people are to blame for these riots and that young people seem to always be involved in dangerous stories. By being constantly exposed to stories like this means that old people start to become afraid of most young people, thinking that they all must behave in this way. This leads to many older people becoming even too scared to leave their own homes. 

http://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2013/sep/19/neuroscience-psychology

This stereotype is reinforced a lot through several media forms, as you are constantly seeing news stories and articles about violent acts involving young people, and we cannot really blame the older generations for stereotyping us in such a way, as the media has created and reinforced this stereotype so often that is it so rare to hear of a young person achieving good things, and even when they do, it now seems to go unnoticed. The reason for violence in young people is also accounted for by the use of video games, so therefore, older people think that this must be true because there is a reason for young people acting in this way, so therefore they go along blaming things such as video games and violent TV shows. This article explains how there is a correlation between violent video games and the violence in children. However, this article is constructed to give facts, so there is no content to show that violent video games actually don't have any effect on most children that play them.