This critical investigation will be on the question To what extent does news media create moral
panic and represent teenagers in a negative way that the public should fear? The question that's going to be extensively and will be covering topics such as the
issues and debates raised, how technology affects teenagers’ social life, how
have their minds been corrupted, different events and more. So what is it that
makes the viewer’s believe in the media? Surely the audience knows that it is
mediated and can be exaggerated or can even reach to the extreme of being a
complete lie, like the recent scandal with the BBC and allegations towards Lord
McAlpine. Teenagers now have an image of being juvenile with no care towards society
and its rules, but this image changes constantly like for instance in the past
a typical deviant would be a white working class male but now would be more
likely to be a black working class male. According to the BBC’s report there’s ‘a marked increase in the number of girl gang
members and a rise in sexual violence within gangs’ again, showing that
this stereotype is constantly shifting, not just with ethnicity but with gender
as well.
Issues and debates could help decipher the problem with the
view on young adults and teens. An issue would be representation and
stereotyping, The
way the media demonises the youth has left an imprint on today’s society as
being ill-mannered, violent and being associated with drugs, sex and gangs.
Hoodies, joggers, baseball caps, oversized shirts are a part or the iconography
of the stereotyped teens. The media reports certainly do amplify stories to do
with the youth like in recent events such as the protests and riots; it was all
that was shown on news channels. Where’s the success of teenagers? Their
academic success? Achievements? But then that’s just a case of what the
audience is interested in, and media institution’s goal is to get the most
power. From the Marxist perspective the media will try and gain as much power
to rule the lower class and will do this however they can, so by only showing
stories that the audience would be interested in is a way for them to get that
power. However showing these negative coverage’s can often cause moral panic, moral panic is caused when the media exaggerates
stories scaring the public. For example the summer 2011 London riots. People
were informed to stay inside and to not go outside because of the fear of being
attacked or robbed and to also keep children inside so they wouldn't join the
riots. The news reached all over so before long, even places that weren't affected would have heard about it which resulted in more panic.In terms of regulation and censorship there have been rules
put up to restrict the view of violence from children but aren't blocked from
what they shouldn't be allowed access to through what they see on the TV or on
video games. It influences their behaviour and attitudes. From a young age
children take in what they observe and pick up the same characteristics from
the platforms like on the TV and they see what the media perceives as how teens
should act and therefore think that, that is how they should act. Nowadays it’s
harder to censor explicit things because of the development of technology, now
anyone with access to the internet can get any information they want because it’s
been made easier or methods have been created to bypass any boundaries. Also due
to even further development we now have access to the internet on different electronic
devices that are portable like; android/smart phones, tablets, laptops etc. Also
the lean back media plays a part, as the content they advertise and how they
advertise can be looked at in two ways. Looking at Stuart Halls reception
theory we can take the preferred reading as it’s all just purely for
advertising purposes but then the oppositional reading could be that it’s
actually corrupting the minds of youths
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