"British youths are 'the most unpleasant and violent in the world'" .[1]
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 looked at 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. Stanley Cohen wrote a book based on his study on moral panic and the media, it has become a significant piece of research and the book is called Folk Devils and Moral Panics. This book focuses on the events that happened from 1964 to 1966 in England with the two groups; the mods and rockers. The first disruptions happened in Clacton in 1964 ‘with a few scuffles, some stone throwing, some windows being broken and some beach houses were wrecked’[2]. In reality it was fairly trivial but the media amplified the story and became a huge battle, ‘more than 1,000 teenagers were involved’[3] and ‘fifty-nine teenagers were arrested’[4]. Cohen described this account of having contained three features; exaggeration and distortion, prediction- the media assuming there to be more violence, symbolisation- what the mods and rockers were wearing were labelled negatively. According to Cohen, by the media’s influence it led to an increase of crimes because by describing the two juvenile subcultures teenagers took on these traits and therefore led to even more conflict. 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 where he stated that people ‘had used the internet to accuse him of something he had not done’[5]. 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’[6] 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? Proving that they “are often marginalized in our society.”[7] 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 and to get power they need popularity. 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 legislations 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, ‘It's been assumed that the Internet is immune from censorship’[8] 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.
The media technology and digital revolution has vastly improved in the way we gain information, send out information, how we connect and will no doubt have many other functions in the future. Development in technology is always evolving to fill the needs and wants of its users and teenagers have become massive consumers of e-media and especially social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter. Young adults have become the internet generation and it can be shown through statistics; twitter engages a wide audience as anyone can use it but 45% of its audience base goes to 18-34 year olds[9]. So it’s the younger ages that are updating what they’re doing and connecting with each other, but is this safe for teens? “Teenaged Twitter users aren't the sharpest, most culturally-aware knives in the drawer-- but we're also regurgitating news that you've probably already seen”[10] from this, its suggesting that teenaged twitter users are mindless passive audience who give into the media and are used to advertise information. The different media have now converged together so that now it’s possible to gain internet access through portable devices and now it’s been developed even further so there are dedicated apps to social networks like Facebook, twitter, instagram etc. making it easy and accessible. On the one hand it’s a positive thing to have easy access as consumers would be pleased but then on the other hand it could be considered as a bad thing as we’ve seen in recent events. The use of social networks was abused in the 2011 riots and the incident got to an extent where authorities had to actually police these networks in order to prevent any more crimes. Recent reports suggest that paedophilia is on the increase[11], as kids are able to go on social networks it’s also easy for them to meet strangers and because they’re young they’d be more naïve then adults. Paedophiles can easily manipulate kids into saying or doing anything that could put them in danger, such as sending explicit pictures or talking in a certain manor. Because of the issue raised actions have been taking place like kids and teenagers are being educated on the subject and are becoming more aware of what they could be at risk of. Also on social networks there are security settings where it’s possible to make their account private from anyone but there family or friends, also there’s a report abuse button where if the situation were to happen then it could be taken care of. However since the internet is so large it’s therefore immensely difficult to regulate everything which is why paedophilia still occurs. “But of course there have been riots and revolutions long before the electronic media came along”[12] so the media isn’t hugely to blame on the crimes that have been committed as the world was not perfect before technologies came into play but still is a major contributor.
Charlie Brooker looks at many events on the BBC show ‘Screen Wipe’ and he focuses on the London riots[13]. All the teenagers in the clip of the riots were wearing stereotypical costumes like hoodies, jackets, trainers, bandannas, baseball caps and most of them were masking their face to hide their identity. Those hiding their identity show that they know what they’re doing are wrong however they still carry on, but this sort of irrational behaviour is typical of the connotations of the youth in London today. Charlie Brooker’s style is in a less serious way, like for example in a scene where he’s parodying a news style report we can see this from the backdrop; window out looking the London eye and from what he’s wearing, a smart suit. His posture and tone of his voice is very formal which is the style of a new report but at the same time he’s still joking around. The studio lighting is kept bright (35:52) to keep the mood optimistic as the story being told is depressing so in order to keep the viewers watching and not get depressed the setting is kept bright. But the lighting does change to a low light coming from one lamp in the background, this gives a more one to one feeling so it engages more with the audiences as we’ll feel like he’s only telling us, uses and gratification- Blumler and Katz. Because of this we as an audience would also share his views because of the way it’s been sent across. The diegetic sounds of the shouting and the bashing of the riots displays the dangerous atmosphere giving the audience a message of a menacing environment portraying the character roles of the youths being the villain and the police being the hero, as suggested by Vladimir Propp, 'as it denotes the action of the character'[14]. These character types will assist the viewers to label who are the good ones and who are the bad ones. Social order completely collapsed as the riots broke out also forming another sub culture from the use of social media like twitter, Facebook and BBM, deviants were able to meet up and cause havoc. Historically this sort of event has happened before, for example ‘The Mods and Rockers’, even though events like this as occurred before, it’s still isn’t an ordinary scene which is why it was over represented and was focused on so much. Economically the damage of the riots caused cost over £200 million[15] worth of property damage. Looking at this from a political perspective they say that the hooliganism and ‘gang culture’ didn’t represent the culture as a whole. Political members such as the London mayor Borris Johnson[16] and Prime Minister David Cameron[17] were appalled and the police are working on catching the criminals and are slowly making progress. Changing technologies in the 21st century made it easy for people to connect and find out what was happening. Because of the progression of technology like being able to access social media on your phone made it even more convenient for rioters to organise and assemble to target different areas which are the effect of globalisation in the media. Because of the over representation and the amplification of the story it caused masses of moral panic. The riots were such a hot topic everyone knew about it and were constantly urged to stay indoors and to also keep their kids at home and since they were constantly being reminded they were scared for their own safety which shouldn’t be an issue in the comfort of their own home. This really demonstrated what an impact the riots had on the local community causing a great deal of moral panic. Furthermore due to globalisation the news of the London riots travelled fast as it was shown on American news.
An extract from CNN news, an American news station shows a different representation of youths[18]. The previous text it shows a more negative representation but in this clip it shows a positive appearance for teenagers/young adults. The costume the young black man was wearing showed a completely different image to what you would expect; it doesn’t conform to his stereotype. He wore a smart shirt and tie presenting himself in a formal manner so that people knew he meant business and wanted to make a difference, an entirely different portrayal of the distinctive costume of hoodies and tracksuits. The setting is out on the street with a massive crowd including journalists and the paparazzi, meaning that the story is a hot topic and should be acknowledged to be important that something out of the ordinary has happened. Because of the increase of interconnectedness and the effect of globalisation it’s been shown on American news thus showing the full effect of the digital revolution. More developed countries like the US and the UK are more open and are not closed to only their country, they report news globally and let other countries know what’s going on around the world making them more conscious, but is this the start of a loss of culture? Stuart Hall’s reception theory would explain the preferred reading to be the young black male not conforming to stereotypes but in fact is the opposite. He’s well educated with what’s happening with the world around us, for example EMA, universities, Libya. But on the other hand the oppositional reading would be that the young male is being disrespectful towards the Mayor, arguing with someone older than him, being loud and obnoxious. Both examples give an opposite outlook of a teenager, so it is up to the audience of which view they want to take. “Dorfman (2001) found that over three-quarters (76%) of the public said they formed their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the news, more than three times the number of those who said they got their primary information on crime from personal experience (22%)”[19]. An amazing bit of statistics that shows just how much the media influences the public’s views. Dorfman (2001) carried out research finding that over three quarters of people get their opinions from the news; this puts forward the idea of hegemony suggested by Karl Marx but then furthered by Gramsci[20]. Gramsci understood that the media teaches people to do things voluntarily to upkeep supremacy in authority and in this context the media ‘teaches’ the dominant view on crime, which people then cooperate with by also taking on this view hence proving Dorfman’s study. But then it isn’t clear if the view on crime is specifically targeted at young people or at others and the youth today are represented positively. As mentioned in Bill Osgerby’s ‘Youth Media’ “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage”[21] so the view on crime that some people take from the media could be positive for young teens.
Looking back to the past the representation of youths hasn’t always been the same, there are similarities and differences so by studying a text from the 70’s it’s easy to see what’s changed. Quadrophenia (1979)[22] is about a British, working-class youth, Jimmy who is a part of the ‘Mods’ subculture cruises around at night with his friends on their scooters, but in the day works in the mailing rooms. Jimmy and his friends go away for the bank holiday to Brighton to enjoy their little holiday but then run into their rival group the Rockers resulting in Jimmy getting arrested. From there Jimmy’s life goes downhill. This movie relates to the critical investigation as it is both based on delinquent youths in Britain but just set in different periods. The youth culture has definitely changed over the years but still contain some similarities, like for example dealing drugs but it’s a little different to the ones in Quadrophenia, instead of drugs that we know today like crack, cocaine and heroin they’re overdosing on pills that are meant to be for medicinal purposes (e.g. anti-depressants). So the movie has a scene where the protagonist and his friends break into a chemist to steal a great deal of pills committing the crimes; theft, trespassing and drug handling. Another similarity is a typical teenage party with drinking, smoking, loud music, sexual behaviour and being disruptive. The music however has changes over a period of time, the music used in this example is from The Who, an English rock band from the 1960’s[23], nowadays young teens would be listening to rap or RnB mostly from originating from America, also showing how globalisation has been taken into effect where that barrier of music has been broken down. In the media it’s not only the teens that are negatively represented but it’s also the parents in both the past and present the parents are seen as a mirror of their teenage kids and not having much interaction with them, affecting the way they turn out and what they grow up to be, delinquents. Gang/territory conflict is also what we see in the movie and also in the media now, Quadrophenia’s conflict are between the ‘mods’ and ‘rockers’ and is often physical fights that occurs. We also see that today in the mass media or even with our own eyes, gangs or ‘subcultures’ conflicting with each other so that’s another point that hasn’t changed much. One major difference that can be seen is the ethnicity difference and their dialect. Today’s stereotype of a deviant is a working-class, young, black male. According to the movie, delinquents in the 1960’s were all, if not mostly white with a cockney accent with very different use of words and the only black characters that were shown for a couple seconds had a very strong Jamaican accent, showing how much times have changed that instead of the white being deviant it’s now black youths. Also the clothing has changed completely, in the 1960’s the costume used in the movie were mostly casual clothes like a normal t shirt tucked into some jeans also wearing leather biker jackets that we wouldn’t see gangs wearing today. They also sometimes wore suits but this could just because they had jobs which were low-skilled but also showed that they weren’t always badly behaved and that they’re trying to look after themselves. The youth’s today typical attire would be a hoodie, baggy shirt, saggy jeans and a baseball cap; it’s a lot lazier. Overall examples of teenagers in contemporary media are significantly different to those in the past, but still share some similarities this is due to the media changing our views and shaping our beliefs to one dominant view, resulting in people sharing a hegemonic view ‘the predominance of one social class over others.’[24]
“In the public’s mind, a few juveniles hanging out together on a street corner elicits the image of delinquent gang. While these juveniles may not belong to any formal gang.”[25]. This quote points out that even though the group of young teens are hanging out on the street corner doesn’t mean they’re a part of a juvenile group looking for trouble, they could just be there for social reasons. But because of the stereotypes that they have been labelled and it is the appearance that decides a person’s view, the group is automatically feared which is unfair on their part, everyone knows the saying; don’t judge a book by its cover so why does today’s society still carry on doing it? The media plays a huge role on reinforcing these qualities in the youth creating what Stanley Cohen (1987) calls moral panic; a sudden increase in public perception of the possible ‘threat to societal values and interests’[26] because of exposure to media texts. So that the general public fear young adults who probably have no violent motives due to the media amplifying the misconception of folk devils (deviant outsiders). Nevertheless there is a corrupt subculture that rejects society’s norms and value that overshadows the success of adolescents; their counter-stereotype of being hard working and well-mannered and that they focus on differed gratification.
The British media are able to show racial differences now because of how often the typical stereotypes have been shown over a long period of time, whether it’d be in a soap, comedy, films, the news etc. “Radicalized difference is a key feature of British race relations and has been aptly borne”[27]. The audience is so used to it and takes it in that it seems normal to them and when they go out into reality they take on those beliefs as their own. This is an example of cultivation theory where the effects of TV over a long period of time ‘shape our perceptions of reality and the world around us by affecting our attitudes and certain ways of thinking’[28]. Any media program would use stereotypes for different reason like for example, so it’s easy for the audience to identify and feel comfortable (uses and gratification). Or to convey a certain message e.g. all black people are inferior to white people or maybe just for comedy, it depends on what genre we’re looking at. As the media ‘feeds’ us our views we’re able to get subtle hints they may give “They are shopping for themselves, spending for all they are worth… Some of us may wonder how they get the energy, other how do they get the money”[29]. Because of the media stereotyping the readers would already know the answer to which the author, Bill Osgerby is implying because of the stereotypes given to the youth. “Spending for all they’re worth” so teens don’t think ahead about their future, only interested in immediate gratification. For that reason this suggests they spend without thinking and act irrational. Also indicating how immature and irresponsible they can be by living and spending for today, living fatalistically. Since the media has an impact on the public minds and influences our view, the institution can manipulate and gate-keep the information given to us.
Through the constant coverage of the story, the media made it look like that these sorts of events were going to reoccur again. “what had happened was inevitably going to happen again”[30] but this was only just an assumption however because the media kept on putting emphasis on the reports and raising the question of what should be done next time? ‘What still needs to change if we are avoid a repeat of last year’[31] this assured the audience that this disaster would happen again. So by combining that message along with the attention of the violence shown to the public would have resulted in the audience panicking where delinquents would strike next. Moral panic causes people to think events will reoccur because of the constant coverage and attention.
Overall teenagers are represented in a negative way and have been labelled as deviant but ‘the notion of ‘youth’ is seen as a fairly recent invention”[32]. The word ‘youth’ is labelled with negative connotations therefore ‘the notion of youth’ may have been created to victimise a different target. One of the media’s main purposes is to provide their audience with a good story or a new story. The media puts forward its hegemonic views that the public passively accepts (hypodermic syringe) making stereotypes easy to believe. As all stories have to go through a gatekeeper and the media is able to pick and choose and how stories are shown, it’s easy for those in power to manipulate accounts and show the distorted version to the public for them to accept. “The mass media provide an organizational framework within which individuals interact in the context of set roles and established power hierarchies”[33]. Because of the media’s racial ideologies its created “power hierarchies” to establish which race is more admirable. ‘Individuals interact’ with the roles, so they’ve acknowledged the set roles and take them on without any difficulty. This proves how powerful the mass media are where it is able to enforce their idea of who’s at the top of the hierarchy and who’s placed at the bottom reinforcing the established roles of different types of people. The media has put this ideology through to ensure that they stay on top, it shows the ones who have the most power and should be feared. Anything the mass media states should be accepted by the public, reflecting the Marxist perspective where the ruling class stay on top and exploit those lower (the working class). Most of what is seen that is related to young adults on the news media are denoted as juvenile actions but then when looking from a different perspective not all the media reports for teens are necessary deviant. For example the news coverage from CNN news where the young black man spoke up, therefore there are positive representations of youths but it’s just been over shadowed by all the negative depictions. “Positive media representation of youth did not disappear, but there was a palpable resurgence of more negative coverage”[34]
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References
Work Cited
Print
Cohen, S. (2011). Folk devils and moral panics. London: Routledge.
Downing, J., & Husband, C. (2005). Representing race: racisms, ethnicities and media. London: SAGE.
Malik, S. (2001). Representing black Britain: black and Asian images on television. London: SAGE.
Marsh, I., & Melville, G. (2009). Crime, justice and the media. London: Routledge.
Osgerby, B. (2004). Youth media. London: Routledge.
Paludi, M. A. (2011). The psychology of teen violence and victimization. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger.
Propp, V. I., & Liberman, A. (1984). Theory and history of folklore. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Regoli, R. M., & Hewitt, J. D. (1997). Delinquency in society (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Shaw, S. M. (2010). Parents, children, young people and the state. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.
Webb, R. (2009). A2 sociology: the complete course for the AQA specification. Brentwood: Napier.
APA formatting by BibMe.org.
BBC news 18th may 1964 Mods an Rockers jailed after seaside riots
The Guardian, Brian Lapping, Young and foolish - with old-fashioned ideas, Tuesday 19th may 1964
Moving Image
Work consulted
Webb, R. (2009). A2 sociology: the complete course for the AQA specification. Brentwood: Napier.
