Press Representations

Teen Trouble (26th November 2007)

• Teenagers are a public enemy
• Parts of the media now attack teenagers
• Creates a wide gap between adults and teenagers
• The public has a view that teenagers cause most of the crime in the UK (about 80%) due to the media where in fact on 12% of crimes are committed by teens
• News of the World journalist states that "teens out of control" is a more dramatic and interesting story
• The public have a concern about teens and the media satisfies this
• Police get calls about youths where in fact most of the time they have been causing no problems
• Society doesn't accept youths as part of a community
• Adult fears are out of proportion to the real threat caused by teens
• Orders put in place such as mosquito alarms and dispersal orders
• During the Mods and Rockers era the papers were paying teenagers to be violent so they had something to write about
• Murder of 2 year old boy by two 10 year old children has changed societies opinion of youths
• In 1997 age of criminal responsibility taken down to the age of 14
• 4.2 million CCTV cameras across the country
• Impact of CCTV images makes us fear crime even more
• 6 times more likely to die falling down stairs than getting stabbed
• Cultivation theory - amount of proliferation coverage makes people believe what they see is true, which is effect creates moral panic
• Hypodermic needle theory - injected information as passive consumers, we accept everything we are told by the media. This is particularly true with older generations
• Desensitisation - because we see something so much in the media it no longer effects us which leads to the media over exaggerating
• "Generation ASBO"

Reading the Riot Acts

• IPSOS MORI Survey 2005: 40% of articles focus on violence, crime, antisocial behaviour; 71% are negative
• Brunel University 2007: TV News: violent crime or celebrities; young people are only 1% of sources
• Women in Journalism 2008: 72% of articles were negative; 3.4% positive. 75% about crime, drugs, police. Boys: yobs, thugs, sick, feral, hoodies, louts, scum. Only positive stories are about boys that died young

TV News Broadcasts

• TV was covering the riots on a round the clock basis
• An endless search for "experts" (any one with an opinion, all very negative)
• Anyone who spoke positively about the riots were shot down by the media

Rioting 2.0?

• Turning off the internet
• What role did new media technologies, particularly social networking sites play in London riots?
• Do media cause new revolutions?
• Technology and surveillance: mobile phones, CCTV, 24-hour news...

The Guardian Article: 'Broken Britain' rhetoric fuels fears about state schools

• How can you link cultural hegemony to this article?

Jessica Shepherd comments on the fact middle class attitudes are dramatically influencing how we view children in state schools "Tory "broken Britain" rhetoric has fuelled middle-class anxieties about state schools, an influential thinktank warns today". Cultural hedgemony is evident here as it is the fears of the middle class that are the concern, rather than the working class. The views of the Conservatives reinforces the views and attitudes of the middle class "Tory MPs and ministers group poverty and bad behaviour together...and risk entrenching class divisions in education even more deeply." This is stating that the opinions expressed reinforce cultural hedgemony by creating social division.

• How does the article suggest moral panic is being caused?

 The Consevatives are "playing to middle class fears and invoking 'a moral panic'" The Fabian society accused the Conservatives of  "massively exaggerated the problems in state schools" which has then lead to moral panic from the middle class. We can see that in fact the problems have been exaggerated as "While thousands of pupils come from low-income families and attend schools in deprived neighbourhoods, just a small number behave anti-socially or commit crimes".

• Can you link in McRobbies Symbolic violence theory? How?

 The article suggests that the working class have been represented in such a way as to scare the middle class, symbollically challenging their views and attitudes. The article states that David Cameron made a "comment in July that he was "terrified" by the prospect of sending his children to a local state secondary school". This clearly suuports the idea that symbollic violence is being used to reinforce cultural hedgemony "They link together issues such as bad discipline, falling standards, crime, and 'feral children' with educational standards in disadvantaged schools". State schools have been used as a symbol that links to crime and violence.

• How far do you agree with this article that governments decisions and policies are continuing to create a divide between the middle and working class? Discuss

 I agree with this article as the government are not working class, so they can't understand their issues and opinions. The government have a middle class attitude which means they are likely to reinforce their dominat idealologies in order to retain dominant idealologies. The negative representation of the working class and links between state school children with crime and anti-social behaviour from the government is obviously going to cause moral panic within the middle class as they fear a culture different from their own. This is most likely also the fears of the government.

• Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson.