Read through and watch the text(s) below and then answer the question that follows in bold print at the end of the post...
Mods and Rockers were easily identifiable by their distinctive clothing styles: the Mods wore Fred Perry and Ben Sherman designer suits, covered by a Parka jacket; while the Rockers wore leather biker jackets and jeans. Mods also rode European scooters like Lambrettas and Vespas and listened to a mix of Motown, ska and bands such as The Who.
The Rockers favoured motorbikes and listened to American rock and roll such as Eddie Cochrane and Elvis. Although the movements were short-lived, violent clashes between the two gangs were seized on by the media and used by moralists to exemplify the outrageous liberties enjoyed by Britain’s youths.
The seafront vandalism and violence described in the newspaper article was later made into the 1979 film Quadrophenia.
This is evidence of historical creation of collective identity for British youth cultures.
One weekend in 1964 residents and holiday-makers in the seaside towns of Brighton, Bournemouth and Margate, were rocked by a sudden influx of young, cool gangs. They were Mods and Rockers, and the culture clash that occurred that weekend, described in the articles below in The Daily Sketch, Daily Mirror and others, has become iconic in the history of youth culture.
Mods and Rockers were easily identifiable by their distinctive clothing styles: the Mods wore Fred Perry and Ben Sherman designer suits, covered by a Parka jacket; while the Rockers wore leather biker jackets and jeans. Mods also rode European scooters like Lambrettas and Vespas and listened to a mix of Motown, ska and bands such as The Who.
The Rockers favoured motorbikes and listened to American rock and roll such as Eddie Cochrane and Elvis. Although the movements were short-lived, violent clashes between the two gangs were seized on by the media and used by moralists to exemplify the outrageous liberties enjoyed by Britain’s youths.
The seafront vandalism and violence described in the newspaper article was later made into the 1979 film Quadrophenia.
The video below shows how the media in the 1960s reported the clashes between mods and rockers and considers whether or not the media coverage exaggerated the scale of events leading to a 'moral panic' in relation to the behaviour of these youth subcultures.
This is evidence of historical creation of collective identity for British youth cultures.
Question
In what ways do the media texts referenced above create a representation of young people as being a danger to society?
The way the media texts create a representation of young people as being a danger to society is by the use of words within the headlines and subheadings. This is called mediation, mediation is when the media choose what they want the audience to know, it is common for the media to over exaggerate information to create an impact and change the audiences thoughts. For example the Daily Sketch produced an article in 1964 based on the Mods and Rockers the heading was in a bold black font "WILDEST ONES YET". The word wildest suggests that the mods and rockers are out of control and like wild animals that have been set free. The phrase "wildest ones" references back to the 1953 film based on a motorbike gang who create a large amount of trouble enough to be kicked out of town. This is relevant to this subject as Mods ride scooters and Rockers ride motorbikes when put together they are seen as troublesome gangs. The word 'yet' suggests that there has been previous incidents and there will be more in the future which may be worse.
The subheading above this headline is "Beach crowds take cover from battling mods and rockers". This is military language and the news reporters are supposedly telling everyone to watch out for the groups as something bad may happen to them. We know this by the "take cover" this connotes that the crowd on the beach had to hide away from the 'war' and take shelter to be safe. This is also relevant as world war 2 was 19 years before this happened and most of the fighting was on the beach/ coast. The word battling suggests that it was more than a fight or argument and references back to war creating an impact on the audience making them become frightened of the teens.
The piece of writing that goes with this headline includes simple information about the age, location and small reports on what had happened. Three men where stabbed during this event, comparing this to the military language as over 60 million people where killed in WW2 and three men being stabbed is nothing compared to this. This is a prime-example of how the media are trying to represent young people as a danger representing them as violent murderers. In the article they talk about how the police arrested '75 rioting teenagers' this is pin pointing the type of age the people where and automatically creates a bad representation to the reader as they are just saying 'teenagers' not specific details only the group.
The media choose specific pictures to represent the mods and rockers, for example this picture took on the pier. we can see two rockers jumping down from a bridge with mods behind them holding up deck chair ready to throw at them. From looking at the picture the representation of young people is that they are dangerous and extremely violent to where people had to put there lives in danger by jumping from a height. In reality the bridge could only be a few feet high and other people may be jumping from the bridge. The use of editing has created this impact as the media have cropped out the 'unnecessary' and only focused on the worse parts of the photo.
Overall the media create representations of young people by using photos and specific language to create a stereotype on the group and make sure that the young people are targeted for being a certain way from there audience.
The subheading above this headline is "Beach crowds take cover from battling mods and rockers". This is military language and the news reporters are supposedly telling everyone to watch out for the groups as something bad may happen to them. We know this by the "take cover" this connotes that the crowd on the beach had to hide away from the 'war' and take shelter to be safe. This is also relevant as world war 2 was 19 years before this happened and most of the fighting was on the beach/ coast. The word battling suggests that it was more than a fight or argument and references back to war creating an impact on the audience making them become frightened of the teens.
The piece of writing that goes with this headline includes simple information about the age, location and small reports on what had happened. Three men where stabbed during this event, comparing this to the military language as over 60 million people where killed in WW2 and three men being stabbed is nothing compared to this. This is a prime-example of how the media are trying to represent young people as a danger representing them as violent murderers. In the article they talk about how the police arrested '75 rioting teenagers' this is pin pointing the type of age the people where and automatically creates a bad representation to the reader as they are just saying 'teenagers' not specific details only the group.
The media choose specific pictures to represent the mods and rockers, for example this picture took on the pier. we can see two rockers jumping down from a bridge with mods behind them holding up deck chair ready to throw at them. From looking at the picture the representation of young people is that they are dangerous and extremely violent to where people had to put there lives in danger by jumping from a height. In reality the bridge could only be a few feet high and other people may be jumping from the bridge. The use of editing has created this impact as the media have cropped out the 'unnecessary' and only focused on the worse parts of the photo.
Overall the media create representations of young people by using photos and specific language to create a stereotype on the group and make sure that the young people are targeted for being a certain way from there audience.
Well done Jemma - this is a good analysis of how the coverage of the events in 1964 by these newspapers created a negative representation of young people at the time.
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You must be able to refer to Stanley Cohen's research in the exam. Can you summarise in a reply to this comment what his thoughts were and what a Deviancy Amplification Spiral is?
A deviancy amplification spiral is when an event happens and is over exaggerated by the media increasing numbers of articles/reports. This usually happens within antisocial behaviour and leads to a moral panic. Stanley Cohen researched how this is done and created articles on the media and the effect it has on the audience.
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