Stanley Cohen studied a fight that broke out between youth groups at a beach in Clacton, England. He saw it as an ideal case study for his labeling theory approach. In his book "Folk Devils and Moral Panics", he analyzed exaggerated and distorted media reporting on the events, and how this amplified public fears and concern. Cohen defined "moral panic" as intense feelings in a population that something threatens societal values. He also discussed "deviance amplification", where increasing media coverage of antisocial behavior can lead to moral panics. Cohen's theory is relevant to analyzing negative press coverage of films like "A Clockwork Orange" that were accused of inspiring real-world violence among youth gang

1. Historical Case study Write up
On a bank holiday weekend in Clacton a fight broke out on the beach, the beach
huts were damaged along with many other things in the area also someone fired
a starting pistol. The media reported it as a riot but it was hardly a riot. Stanley
Cohen read the reports and thought it would be an ideal case study for the new
evolving labelling theory. When researching for his book ‘Folk Devils and Moral
Panics’ 1972, he searches through newspaper reports and seaside resorts,
visiting social control agencies in suit and tie and changing to do participant
observation research on the beaches in the clubs. Cohen illustrates the distorted
media reporting of the mods and rockers, the ensuring panic and how this
amplified.
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue
that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen a moral
panic occurs when an episode, person or group of people emerges to become
defined as a threat to societal values and interests. Deviance amplification is
defined by media critics as a cycle of increasing numbers of reports on the
category of antisocial behaviour or event leading to a moral panic.
A Clockwork Orange was made in 1971; it was written, directed and
produced by Stanley Kubrick. It shows disturbing, violent images, facilitating its
social commentary on psychiatry, youth gangs and other social, political and
economic subjects in a dystopian, future Britain. The press are looking at the film
in a negative way because people are copying scenes from the film for an
example from the Mail Online “Girls kicked gay man to death in a attack like
scene from A Clockwork Orange” the newspaper explains what the two women
did to the victim. A witness mention that the level of violence to a scene from A
Clockwork Orange which caused outrage on release over its depiction of a gang
of teenager carrying out violence.
Stan Cohen’s theory would be related to this film with deviance
amplification because the numbers of gang violence is rising and the press are
reporting it to be related to the film.
Quadrophenia was made in 1979, British film, loosely based around the 1973
rock opera of the same name by The Who. The film stars Phil Daniels as a mod
named Jimmy. It was directed by Franc Roddam. The representation of Jimmy is
that he wants to be part of a gang, identity is very important to Jimmy. Jimmy
wanted to be different but he was just the same as any other normal mod. At one
point in the film Jimmy’s identity was compromised when his friend Kevin was
beaten up. The representation of Steph had sexual freedom because the
contraceptive pill came out about that time; she was quite feminine compared to
the androgynous mods. Finally Steph has no loyalty because she was with Jimmy
then after he was at the courts she was with his best friend. The ideologies for
Steph and Jimmy were to live here and now which basically means live life to the
full also them Vs us which was the mods Vs society.
Mise en scene that reinforces the idea of youth culture was locations; they
had house parties with loud music, alcohol and drugs were involved. Drugs were
mainly taken by the younger generation in the film because the adults know
what they were like, most pubs/clubs were just full of teenagers drinking.

2. Vehicles, most of the teenagers were in a gang either the mods or the rockers,
both gangs had certain vehicles. The mods had a lambrella scooters and the
rockers had motor bikes, all the adults would drive cars. Clothing, the mods wore
parkers (coat) with denim jeans and fred perry tshirts, the rockers wore full
leathers for their bikes the older generation wore shirts and ties.