Second Draft Critical Investigation

'Gangs are usually between 20 to 30 in number and members aged between 15 and 25. People are dependent on you and you have a role. To suggest this is a breakdown of societies values etc is simply to echo numerous moral panics of the past.'[1]

'An investigation into how and why the tabloid press generates moral panics about male teenage delinquency'.

'As it is, a young man in Britain today is unlikely to pick up a tabloid newspaper without seeing himself reflected as a "terrifying teen" or "heartless hoodie", wielding a knife or binge-drinking.'[2] This illustrates how the tabloid press continues to report about youths being ‘dangerous’ and leads to ongoing moral panics within society, even after knowing audiences that tabloids are trivial and not to be taken seriously. This leads too many members of the public becoming increasingly scared and intimidated by regular young people who are not criminals and do not cause anti-social behaviour. Teenagers, especially young boys are most likely to be targeted by the media for being immoral or delinquent in society. The media amplifies the issues of teenagers and their social habits by making links to previous stories from the past generating a moral panic. Stanley Cohen who studies Mods and Rockers showed that the actual situation is far more serious from what the media had generated.

Moral panics are created through different media texts e.g. films, magazines, articles and other different platforms e.g. broadcasting on the internet. Tabloids generate disproportionate number of articles about teenagers being ‘thugs’ and ‘youths out of control’. Films like ‘American Pie’ (1999) and ‘Adulthood’ (2008) demonstrate a difference from how teenagers can be seen as comical and yet are also seen as highly anti-social and a threat to society. In the 21st century it seems teenagers are not getting treated any better and are increasingly represented negative ways. This critical investigation will analyse the reasons behind how and why the tabloid press generate moral panics about male teenage delinquency.

Firstly, tabloid newspapers ‘contain stories that tend to be trivial and are responsible for the creation of moral panics.’[3] This could suggest a reason behind why teenagers have been stereotyped and labelled as being anti-social and aggressive. The tabloid press generate many stories about young people as contemporary society is preoccupied, so it attracts the widest possible market through stories and make sales rather than providing balanced objective and information that is strictly fact and not exaggerated. ‘The Guardian’ published an article about a movie which is called ‘Harry Brown’ (2009) that strikes fear in British cinema which is all about hoodies, teenagers and violence. This is now the moral panic in society today and the main concern to create a film that is hard hitting and reveals what society is like today to stop it from happening. It has become intimidating for many viewers and the audience. However, this article was released by a broadsheet newspaper which shows they are going against the stereotype as they are saying that teenagers are not all the same and showing them a different light, unlike the tabloids that say all teenagers are the same ‘violent’ and ‘thugs’. 'It is a general and dependable response to modernity as a whole, a fear of the new and unknown, a certainty that exists within uncertainty: because something is new and popular - especially if it is popular among young people - it is threatening, and because threatening, dangerous'.[4] This shows the simplicity of the matter that teenagers is just something new and simply another topic for tabloids to exploit in order to make sales. Additionally, because it is to do with young people it has been stereotyped as threatening and created a panic in society to fear youths of today.

Additionally, the way the tabloid press generate these moral panics about teenagers is through coming up with issues in society that will attract as many consumers as possible, they follow up stories and exaggerate them in order to make sales. ‘Moral panics occur when media and society link youth culture to juvenile delinquency, as video games were to the 1999 Columbine shootings. In all moral panics, patterns emerge of how the media chooses to portray what society finds threatening, and what the panics mean in a larger societal context.'[5] This suggests that moral panics are illustrated through the media portraying certain groups in society that are threatening.
Tabloids also include stories that many people can relate to and identify with because this way it will feel like a magazine to users and they will want to purchase it regularly, unlike the ‘Financial Times’, which will generally attract people in business or finance. They also want to promote their logo and bring in revenue for the company.
Moreover, the tabloid press has an effect on their audience, this is because the audiences feel tabloids are more interesting and customer related as it has stories that they can engage in and it makes them feel like it is gossip so they become more interested as it appeals to them a lot more than real news. Also, institutions like ‘The Sun’, generally have news about celebrities and what is going on in society (trivial matters), they are also promoted through many different marketing tools like adverts, billboards but usually word of mouth. 'The typical user smokes their first joint in their mid-teens, with use peaking in the mid-20s. The habit then declines steeply as young people move into jobs and discover they have to get up in the morning.'[6] This is a representation of teenagers which suggests that they do things that are illegal which intimidate society and give reason for tabloids to attack them. Tabloids are generally gossip newspaper articles which society can talk about whilst at work or on the phone etc. The ideology behind creating this article was it showing positive values like informing the readers and encouraging social and political change. However, it was the expense of young people which made society believe the message being sent out was that teenagers in ‘hoods’ are anti-social and destructive youths and this quickly became the stereotype and the public believed that this was what all youths were like so it became the dominant ideology and now all younsters are labelled to be anti-social.
Tabloids can also be found online posting reports on the internet create moral panics, the reason behind it is that technology is changing and nearly everybody has access to a computer, so by posting on the internet many people can see the news without going out to get it and this will still advertise the company. Moral panics have been created on teenagers because they are the ones that are creating the most problems in society, however, my argument is that: Is it right to stereotype every teenager the same? 'As it is, a young man in Britain today is unlikely to pick up a tabloid newspaper without seeing himself reflected as a "terrifying teen" or "heartless hoodie", wielding a knife or binge-drinking.'[7] This informs us that all teens that are interested in news and society today always find themselves being attacked even though they are innocent which makes society ‘fear’ them and makes life difficult for all teenagers. 'It looks lat what certain media texts do to vulnerable groups - 'recruiting' them as armed 'teenage thugs'. This idea of 'recruitment' and the word 'gangsters' in the striking white-on-black headline connotes a world away from hanging around on street corners to a more systematic, materialistic and organised world of criminality and lawlessness.’[8] This shows us that media texts by doing this could possibly backfire on themselves and cause innocent teens to become delinquents and organize a world of crime that is more subtle.
There is a huge social concern with young people at the moment, and it is shown in the article above that society ‘fear’ teenagers because they believe that they are aggressive, rude, violent and ‘dangerous’ all because of them wearing ‘hoods’, society has know followed the stereotype and strongly believe it. This is an example of self fulfilling prohecy and the hypodermic needle theory because news is being fed to the public, regardless if it is true or not and the public believe it, absorb it, thus, leading to a false panic to be created. 'The period was characterised by social and industrial unrest and successive moral panics about crime waves. A more aggressive and confrontational approach to law and order displaced the emphasis on crime, as a social problem.’[9] This demonstrates that socially it creates tension and stress for many members of the public and the emphasis on the moral panic is usually exaggerated so socially the public are suffering as well, this also simply re-emphasizes the issue and the problem that occurs with teenagers; 'Don't think Britons needed a bunch of think-tank eggheads to inform us our teenagers are the developed world's most accomplished binge drinkers.'[10]
Many people like the producers of the new film want to show society that the concern shouldn’t have happened because not all teenagers are like that, the same concern was with many other social groups in the past and they did not cause any problems so it is just a over-reacted story that has fed the society to believe that young people are ‘evil’. Also, society believe that young people do not care about society and always think about themselves, ‘me’, which is an example of uses and gratifications theory. This suggests that society are the ones who have made this decision to believe that young people are dangerous when they are not so society is thinking about themselves rather.
‘What separates hoodies from the youth cults of previous moral panics – the teddy boys, the mods and rockers, the punks, the ravers.’[11] From the article above this shows that many groups and youth cults from previous years have all been around and been feared when the only problem was that the groups just liked the new styles that were in fashion, enjoyed a certain kind of music and followed their clothing (copy cat theory). Which is the same with young people of today who wear ‘hoods’ because of the music they watch as the artist wear ‘hoodies’ also and we are in a time where these new fashions are around. 'Major moral panics in recent times have centered on fears about paedophillia, AIDS, drugs, knife and gun crime.’[12] This clearly suggests how these panics have come about before and is still to this present day a continuing issue.
'The term moral panic was originally employed by Jock Young (1971) and Stanley Cohen (1980).’[13] Moral panics were first thought up by these theorists that stated what a moral panic is. ‘The Guardian’ decided to write this article as it can help them economically grow by generating many sales and making revenue from the number of copies sold. What is more, by promoting a film on their newspaper they may get make revenue from producers of that text as well. Also, ‘The Guardian’ can grow and expand through economically having an article that is appealing, interesting and makes the reader interested and wanting to read more, this will help them economically because they can then become recognized through ‘word of mouth’ and then sell more copies and financially do even better and by creating moral panics will attract more consumers. Also, during a moral panic, everybody wants answers and wants to know all about the issue that the world is facing at this point and if they do not get the answer society draw up their own conclusions. ‘With the populist press in full panic mode, everyone was out to propose answers.'[14]
The political problems with this text is that already there is news, debates and issues about young people being ‘dangerous’ and intimidating, it is slowly becoming a concern for superiors like the police and government because if the moral panic continues and grows the police may have to intervene and clamp down on young people by arresting suspicious teenagers (who may not have even done anything), there is already a new law which enables police to stop and search without any questions and this is negative for young people because they are the main reason behind why there is a stop and search policy and they are the ones who are searched more often than not. ‘The idea and the image of the juvenile delinquent continued to colour films of all kinds made about teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s, from sensationalised crime dramas and social problem films'.[15] They do this because they want to ensure the safety of the public as they can see what the fuss is about and be aware but it is not a good thing for teenagers because they may not be doing anything and still get searched, arrested etc. 'There has been a great deal of public discussion of the link between media violence and children's aggressive behaviour.’[16] The government could become involved by sending out new laws on teenagers, for example, not being able to leave school until 18 now and this could be because after 16 young people may hang around in the streets and cause havoc but teenagers may just want to start working, so the stereotype is always against them.
To conclude, teenagers are ‘intimidating’ and ‘violent’ to an extent and moral panics can be generated because tabloids enjoy gossip and also teens are the ones who are creating the most problems in society today. However, not all teenagers are delinquents and some teenagers are not all the same as the ones represented on the front page of tabloids, many teenagers do not go around 'mugging and picketing.’[17]. 'The other tabloids including The Post and Today all ran similar stories, many on their front pages along with photographs of writhing masses of sweaty teenagers, thrill seeking youngsters in a dance frenzy at the secret party attended by more than 11,000.'[18] The ravers in the photo look hot, crazed and quite demented. Also, the use of an exclamation mark in a headline is usually reserved for only the most shocking of subjects. The moral panic had begun.' This shows how petty and insignificant the problems are and that the moral panic does not have to be made into a big deal like it is, many should take into account that teenagers are mercly stereotyped, whilst being represented in a tabloid newspaper and this representation is far from accurate. Many tabloid newspapers excuse reports related to teenagers who demonstrate positive things they have done in society.

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6399961.stm
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/18/asbos-youthjustice
[3] Rayner, P, Wall, P, Kruger, S (2001) p.223
[4] Kolker, R (2009) p.269
[5] http://www.gamebits.net/other/mqp/
[6] http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-world-map-of-cannabis-1803642.html
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/18/asbos-youthjustice
[8] Probert, D, Graham, A (2008) p.172

[9] Bennet, P, Slater, J, Wall, P (2006)
[10] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/rowanpelling/6123282/Teenagers-binge-drink-because-adults-think-it-is-cool-and-exciting.html
[11] http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/nov/05/british-hoodie-films
[12] Laughey, D (2009) p.100
[13] Hartley, J (2002). P. 147
[14] http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-moral-panic-and-a-return-to-gesture-politics-462773.html
[15] Cook, P (1985) p.218
[16] Lovin, J (2000) p. 69
[17] Williams, K (2003) p. 137
[18] http://www.lycos.com/info/moral-panic--moral-panics.html

Critical Investigation Feedback

'An investigation into how and why the tabloid press generates moral panics about male teenage delinquency'

1st Draft Grade: D

Targets + Next Steps

My targets/ next steps are going to be, firstly, to include more footnotes (book references specifically) to show I have researched into the chosen area of study, also, I am going to look deeper into background knowledge about the tabloid press linking it closely to censorship and ownership whilst giving circulation figures e.g. decline in purchase of newspapers due to new media and how this puts pressure on them to improve. Furthermore, I am also aspiring to include more references to theories and key concepts, paying close attention to ideologies and representation. On each page and making my work clearer and more concise to understand.

How to improve

To ensure this happening, I will improve my work by looking deeper into the ideology of how moral panics promote dominant ideologies that are still too superficial, further reading into moral panics and explain in more detail. I am also, going to carefully check through my work to shorten long sentences, improve my punctuation and explain my points clearly and in a well constructed way. Additionally, I will add further information of SHEP, key concepts, theories and wider contexts this will improve my essay and help boost my grade. The final thing I look to improve is the changing of footnotes and writing them at the bottom of the page in the right way and including a extra 15 quotations.

Progress Report

Monday - We filmed Gurvinder's shots, which included shots of Gurvinder walking into school, walking around southall and talking to the camera.

Wednesday - We filmed Michael's interview in the libary and took many shots of the interview, close ups, high angle, low angle etc. We also took shots of Michael around the school environment.

Thursday - We filmed Amit's interview in an alley way on allenby road, again we took various shots of Amit and Gurvinder and took shots of Amit's environment e.g. the slums.

Action Plan

Friday - We are going to film Ardit at 6 o clock outside the Allenby shops, we will show him in a fight with 'enemies' and show a conflict between the two.

Saturday/Sunday - Complete all the shots, we will take shots of Gurvinder talking to the camera, walking around and shots of various different places and then start out editing fresh for Monday.