This document provides an overview of concepts related to representations of youth in media and moral panics. It discusses Stanley Cohen's concept of moral panic, where exaggerated media coverage leads to politicians and police acting to return social values of normalcy. Youth are often portrayed as "folk devils" to reflect adult anxieties. Theories from Acland, Gerbner, and Galtung & Ruge are also summarized, explaining how media representations reinforce social order, influence perceptions of crime, and use selective gatekeeping to determine newsworthiness. Examples of past moral panics around various media are also briefly outlined.

1. A2 MEDIA
STUDIES -
G325
Section B:
COLLECTIVE
IDENTITY
Lesson 1

2. Starter
• What does the following word mean?
Ephebiphobia

3. Sound familiar?
• They wore peaked caps, neck scarves, bell-bottom
trousers, and a hairstyle cropped close to the scalp, with
a "donkey fringe" over the forehead.
• There were pitched battles between rival gangs, armed
with iron bars, knives, powerful catapults, and even
guns. They patrolled their neighbourhoods shouting
obscenities and pushing people down.
• The first ‘hooligans’ riots in Aug 1898

4. Report: ‘The Needs of Youth’
• "Relaxation of parental control, decline of religious
influence, and the movement of masses of young people
to housing estates where there is little scope for
recreation and plenty for trouble ... The problem is a
serious challenge, the difficulty of which is intensified by
the extension of freedom which, for better or worse, has
been given to youth in the last generation."
• 1939

5. "We will call young any individual, no matter what his
age, who does not yet coincide with the function
which has been planned for him... The young, who
have nothing to lose, are the attack. They are the
adventure!”
» Isidore Isou, 1949

6. Stanley Cohen
Concepts
• Moral panic
Explanation
• He argues that occasionally what he calls "folk devils" emerge
within society, reflecting the anxieties and fears of adult culture.
"Moral Panic" emerges when exaggerated media coverage appears
of these "folk devils" leading to politicians and police to act. When
this occurs, the aim is to return the social values of hegemony,
clearly stating what is not a socially acceptable way to behave.
• Cohen's theory suggest that youths have become a cultural "folk
devil" leading media to exaggerate their behaviour.

7. Representations of Youth
• Watch the Following examples
• How do they represent a current Moral Panic?
• Harry Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVOSfHFNlcI
• Eden Lake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9kuMFPW0YI
• Attack the Block:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0gm7dHKKc
• Skins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho69_sCkwyI

8. Contemporary moral panics
• can you think of more recent examples?

9. Contemporary moral panics
• the hoodie and youth as threat
• hip hop/gangsta rap
• Islamic ‘terrorists’
• videogame violence
• sexualisation of children

10. Youth as ‘scapegoat’
• In the discussion surrounding youth,
‘childhood and youth are socially
produced categories, projection screens
upon which the fears and longings of
the adult world are projected. Through
this process the role of young people as
an enduring scapegoat for the collective
neurosis of society is ensured”
• (Brown 1998:12).

11. Date Term ?, Lesson ? 11

12. Charles R Acland
Concepts
• Ideology of protection; deviant youth and reproduction of social
order
Explanation
• Acland argues in his theory that the representation of deviant
youths reinforces hegemony, the idea that a culture is ruled by one
social class. Media creates the image of "normal" youth and adults,
then contrasting this with behaviour that contrasts against what we
deem to be socially acceptable. This is what the audience finds
entertaining and interesting, as it is going against these "normal"
views of society. Acland also makes the point that by the media
representing youths in such a way, it allows the state to have more
control over them.

13. Charles R Acland
Concepts
• Ideology of protection; deviant youth and reproduction of social
order
Explanation
• For example, the mass of media reports about negative youth
behaviour led to the introduction of ASBO's, which then led to even
more media coverage. Acland calls this "ideology of protection"
which is the idea that youths need this constant surveillance and
monitoring in order to "protect" them. Similar to Giroux's theory,
youths are impressionable it is a time in their life when they learn
about roles and values from adult culture. Media coverage of
negative behaviour allows the state to reinforce hegemonic values
and tell youths what is wrong and socially unacceptable.

14. Charles R Acland
Concepts
• Ideology of protection; deviant youth and
reproduction of social order
Explanation
• For example, the idea in "hoodie horrors" that
youths are like monsters often included in horror
themes leads some youths to relate these
representations to things they fear, such as
demons, which moves them in the opposite
direction of this sort of behaviour.

15. Representations of Young
people - News•
• News coverage and moral panics: dual
concerns:
• youth as ‘deviant threat’
• childhood ‘innocence destroyed’ by media

16. George Gerbner
• Concepts
Cultivation Theory
• Explanation
Gerbner studies the effect of television on the audience's perception
of crime. His theory suggests that people who watch a large amount of
television have an over exaggerated opinion on crime and how much it
occurs as well as how severe the crimes actually are. He called this
"mean world syndrome". His theory states that because media forms
such as news reports, television programmes and films contain over
exaggerated representations of crimes, mostly negative, people's
perceptions are dramatically influenced. The term used by Gerbner to
describe this is "cultivation theory".

17. George Gerbner
• Concepts
Cultivation Theory
• Quotes
Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and
controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough
measures and hard-line postures... They may accept and even welcome
repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities. (Gerbner)
Who tells the stories of a culture really governs human behavior. It
used to be the parent, the school, the church, the community. Now it’s
a handful of global conglomerates that have nothing to tell, but a great
deal to sell. (Gerbner)

18. Galtung & Ruge
Concept
• Information is filtered by those who deem it
worthy
Explanation
• Selective Gatekeeping.
• Galtung and Ruge selective gatekeeping theory
suggests that news from around the world are
evaluated using news values to determine their
newsworthiness.

19. Martin Barker
• work on history of moral panics
• challenges news coverage’s simplistic
view

20. A Haunt of Fears
• 18th Century theatre
• 19th century ‘penny dreadfuls’
• Music Halls 1890s
• Silent movie crime films
• Horror Comics 1950s
• Rock and Roll
• Video Nasties 1980s