Lesson Write-Up - 13th January

Media & Collective Identity

moral panic - society agreed something threatens social order

folk devil - a group of people that society blames bad things on, a scape goat

why do we have moral panics? - to allow society to agree that something is bad (the media creates scapegoats)

To what extent did the mods and rokers create an ideology for future/contempory representations of youth?

This was essentially the beginning of the negative representation of youth as the media chose to represent teenagers as hooligans, during this historical event. This image is now the stereotype we have of teenagers.

 

Moral Panic - media creates a panic about a group of people that society collectively aggrees could affect the social order

Folk Devil  - who the media puts the blame for the moral panic on

Why do we have moral panics? - gives us a focus and shows society who to blame

 

Mods & Rockers Rebooted - 2014 - TV Documentery

• summary of the ideologies
• how the groups formed
• how the press reported it

Mods & rockers - born in mid/late 40's, post-war baby boom
Working class youths had spare money and time
Teenagers taking risks
'Youth Species'
Mods-Modernists

• embracing the newest things
• wanted to create a new ideology
• wanted to be the best
• didn't see themselves how everyone else did

First teen generation that didn't have to do national service.
Older generation looked on with suspiscion
'Identification with different types of music - black american' - idea of 'freedom'

'Clacton is afraid of the future' - newspaper headline
97 youths arrested - 'boredom caused the problem on both parts'
'wild ones' 'mods' reference to Hitler and young people
Economic, social and identity change for Britain
Journalists creating the probalem - giving lists of places where fights were going to happen
Margate - Whit Weekend - 75 arrests

Moral panic because people knew that teenagers act badly at home but it becomes more of a problem when the public are involved
The press paid people to cause a disruption
Teenagers around the world saw British teens as inspiration - fashion, music etc
Engineered to show that the police were responsive - most people arrested were charged with threatening behaviour and language
Now the number of youths is low - have become a minority

Other Moral Panics:

• Jimmy Saville, entertainers of the 80's
• Social workers, lack of capability 'Baby p'
• Drug culture
• London riots
• Video games and violent behaviour
• Trolling

Summary -

Cohen states that teenagers are seen as 'Folk Devils'
Moral panics are a snap shot of time in which the majority of society place a blame
The mods and rockers were seen as a moral panic as teenagers were 'out of control'
A moral panic consists of 5 key elements to be believeable and impact on society.
The press manipulate messages to create moral panics
The way the press report a story is not always true and air, we live in a blame culture society so we accept this for reporting