To what extent does news media
create moral panic and represent teenagers in a negative way that the public
should fear?
The news media with constant
headlines calling British youth unpleasant and violent gives the public the
view that teenagers should be feared and when encountering them we should be
cautious. By the news media creating moral panic they are able to control the
behaviour of the public and also create stereotypes. But by the continuous
display of these events, it may actually do a lot worse for the public as the
fear increases, and is also unfair to the youth as they are marginalised
because criminal justice system singling youths out and constantly hassle them.
Stanley Cohen wrote a book
called Folk Devils and Moral Panics and 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 news media amplified the story and
became a huge battle, “more than 1,000 teenagers were involved”[3]
and “fifty-nine teenagers were arrested”[4].
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 is
“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.
The way the news 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 news 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 is the success of teenagers? Their academic success?
Achievements? Proving that they “are often marginalized in our society.”[7]
But then that is 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. In terms of regulation and censorship there have been
legislations put up to restrict the view of violence from children but are not
blocked from what they should not 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 is harder to censor explicit things because of the
development of technology, “It is 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 is been made easier or methods have been created to bypass any
boundaries. 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 is all
just purely for advertising purposes but then the oppositional reading could be
that it is 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].
“Teenaged Twitter users are not the sharpest, most culturally-aware knives in
the drawer-- but we are also regurgitating news that you've probably already
seen”[10]
from this, its suggesting that teenaged twitter users are mindless passive
audience, as suggested by the hyperdermic needle, who give into the media and
are used to advertise information. Due to even further development the
different media platforms have now converged together so that now it is
possible to gain internet access through portable devices and now it has 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 is positive 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 have seen in
recent events like in the 2011 riots, the use of social networks were abused
and the incident got to an extent where authorities had to actually police
these networks in order to prevent any more crimes.
Because of the issues raised on
crimes via the internet, actions have been taken 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 is possible to make their account private from anyone but there family or
friends, also there is 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
is therefore immensely difficult to regulate everything which is why crime
still occurs. “But of course there have been riots and revolutions long before
the electronic media came along”[11]
so the media is not 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[12],
the BBC is a public service broadcaster that is the “World’s largest
broadcaster Most trusted media brand” and was also founded in 1922[13]
so the institution is a very well established business with many advocate news
consumers. Looking at the clip all the teenagers 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 are 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. 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 still is not 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’ did not 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 news media.
Because of the over representation and the amplification of the story it caused
masses of moral panic which really demonstrated what an impact the riots had on
the local community causing chaos.
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 does not conform to his stereotype. He wore a smart shirt and tie
presenting himself in a formal manner, an entirely different portrayal of the
stereotype. Because of the increase of interconnectedness and the effect of
globalisation it has 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 not closed to only their country, they report news globally and
let other countries know what is 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 is well educated with
what is 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].
These statistics shows just how much the news media influences the public’s
views, this puts forward the idea of hegemony 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 is not 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 has not always been the same, there are similarities
and differences so by studying a text from the 70’s it is easy to see what is
changed.
Quadrophenia (1979)[22]
is about a British, working-class youth, Jimmy who is a part of the ‘Mods’
subculture. Jimmy and his friends go away for the bank holiday to Brighton 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
is a little different to the ones in Quadrophenia, instead of drugs that we
know today like crack, cocaine and heroin they are overdosing on pills that are
meant to be for medicinal purposes (e.g. anti-depressants). 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 is not only the
teens that are negatively represented but it is 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 we also see that today in the news media or even with
our own eyes, gangs or ‘subcultures’ conflicting with each other so that is
another point that has not changed much. One major difference that can be seen
is the ethnicity difference and their dialect. Currently the 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, showing how
much times have changed that instead of the white being deviant it is now black
youths. The clothing has also changed completely, in the 1960’s the costume
used in the movie were mostly casual clothes like a normal t shirt tucked into
jeans, leather biker jackets moreover some of the characters would wear suits.
The youth’s today typical attire would be a hoodie, baggy shirt, saggy jeans
and a baseball cap; it is 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 does not mean they are 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 and society still carries on
judging a book by its cover, so why do we 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 would 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 is 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 are looking at. As
the media ‘feeds’ us our views we are 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 are worth” so teens do not 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.
“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 is 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 have 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 is at the top of the hierarchy and who is placed at
the bottom reinforcing the established roles of different types of people.
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 is 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]
Word count: 3,354
[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024486/UK-RIOTS-2011-British-youths-unpleasant-violent-world.html
[2] Webb,
R. (2009). P. 122
[3] http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_2511000/2511245.stm
[4]
The Guardian, Brian Lapping, Young and foolish - with old-fashioned ideas,
Tuesday 19th may 1964
[5]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20267832
[6] 6
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20113749
[7] Paludi,
M. A. (2011). P. ix
[8] http://www.gimonca.com/personal/archive/censor.html
[9]
http://www.slideshare.net/postclick/audience-demographics
[10] http://www.examiner.com/article/turns-out-a-bunch-of-teenage-twitter-users-didn-t-even-know-who-osama-was
[11]http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM38_Politics_Riots2011.html
[12] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4coGerRh4ZI
[13] http://www.medianewsline.com/bbc-worlds-largest-broadcaster-most-trusted-media-brand/
[14] Propp,
V. I., & Liberman, A. (1984) p. xxx
[15] http://www.retaileconomics.co.uk/london-riots-cost-retail-300-million-in-lost-sales/
[16] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8689570/London-riots-Boris-Johnson-agrees-to-return-to-London.html
[17] http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/english-riots-david-cameron-hits-1080451
[18] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNeYnWL3D9A
[19] 19
Marsh, I., & Melville, G. (2009). P. 1.
[20] http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/hegemony.html
[21]
Osgerby, B. (2004). P. 67
[22] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079766/
[23] http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/who
[24] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism10.html
[25] Regoli,
R. M., & Hewitt, J. D. (1997). P. 22
[26] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/hrb9701.html
[27] Malik,
S. (2001). Print. P. 10
[28] http://www.colorado.edu/communication/meta-discourses/Papers/App_Papers/Gulisano.htm
[29]
Osgerby, B. (2004). P. 1
[30] Cohen,
S. (2011). P. 35
[31] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2184359/London-riots-year-What-needs-change--.html#axzz2Js3hktj9
[32]
Shaw, S. M. (2010). P. 90
[33] Downing,
J., & Husband, C. (2005). P. 9
[34] Osgerby,
B. (2004).67
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