This article explores the dissonance between the expansive discourses imagined by the advocates for youth media as helping foster "empowerment" and "voice", versus the more circumscribed realities of participatory media production. I focus on a two-part case study--considering both a film-making project for "at risk" young people in South London and the English national government funder that provided the resources for the young people to take part. This case study allows for an exploration of the political economy of youth media, and the relationship between youth media funding and how and why young people in my research often chose to make films about "gangs", a striking topic of concern across 11 youth media case study sites. I use this empirical example as a means to analyse how "empowerment" in youth media projects, understood as both "critical media literacy" and "youth voice," moves from abstract discourse to on-the-ground practice.