Critical Investigation Task #4

Essay plan

Introduction

• introduce what my question is and the particular case study (London riots) 
• talk about youths in London in general

"The newspapers consistently featured large, dramatic images of what the Daily Mirror called 'young thugs with fire in their eyes and nothing but destruction on their mind', or the Daily Express called simply 'flaming morons'." - Theres a riot going on  https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16831

Paragraph 1 

• What caused the riots
• Briefly talk about the events during the London riots including some statistics.
• also which newspapers covered the story the most
• Moral Panic

"Daily Mirror (13 August 2011) talked of ‘Anarchy in the UK – teenage wasteland’: ‘With their hoodies and bandannas no longer hiding their faces, the thugs who left us in the grip of anarchy for four days were finally exposed" 

http://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/65884_Youth_Crime__Representations,_Discourses_and_Data.pdf

Paragraph 2

• talk about the stereotypical views of the youth in the media
• how the newspapers described the youth
• Medhurst theory of stereotype(shorthand)
• Go into depth about whether the riots gave a fair representation of the youth

"In particular, it's interesting to look at how the participants were described. In most of the tabloid media coverage, the rioters were consistently and repeatedly identified as young people. These were the 'feral youth', the 'hoodies' and 'yobs' who apparently rampage uncontrolled in our cities, bent simply on destruction for its own sake." -

Theres a riots going on https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16831

Figures show more than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional newspapers in the past year (4,374 out of 8,629) were about crime. The word most commonly used to describe them was "yobs" (591 times), followed by "thugs" (254 times), "sick" (119 times) and "feral" (96 times). -  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hoodies-louts-scum-how-media-demonises-teenagers-1643964.html

Other terms often used included "hoodie", "louts", "heartless", "evil" "frightening", "scum", "monsters", "inhuman" and "threatening".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hoodies-louts-scum-how-media-demonises-teenagers-1643964.html

“Anarchy in the UK – Teenage wasteland, with their hoodies and bandanas no longer hiding their faces, the thugs who left us in the grip of anarchy” - Uk riots: Anarchy in the UK -

"The Daily Mirror (9 August 2011) spoke of ‘Yob Rule’; the Daily Express (15 August 2011) talked of ‘hooded youths in pitched battles with police, all reason gone and high on destruction’; the Daily Mail (11 August 2011)" 

 http://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/65884_Youth_Crime__Representations,_Discourses_and_Data.pdf

Paragraph 3

• talk about wider context and what other factors may have caused the riosts such as unemployment rates, police mistreatment. 
• Explain why the descriptions were inaccurate

"76% of reporting of young people is negative.
Only 12% of crime is committed by young people.
39% of adults are unaware of the positive things young people do.
Nearly 750 young people completed an online poll for the British Youth Council (BYC) and YouthNet - 80% believed unfair portrayal in the media led to strained relations with older generations. " - http://www.ukyouth.org/resources/youth-statistics/item/379-young_people_in_the_media#.Vh5eHvlViko

paragraph 5 

• How the youths were described by the biggest news media such as daily mail and the gaurdian

‘BRITISH YOUTHS ARE “THE MOST UNPLEASANT AND VIOLENT IN THE WORLD”’ (Daily Mail, 10 August 2011) and ‘LORD OF THE FLIES GANGS RULE ESTATES’ (Sunday Times, 17 August 2003). The first was inspired by the riots in London and elsewhere in the summer of 2011;    

http://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/65884_Youth_Crime__Representations,_Discourses_and_Data.pdf

Conclusion

• Explain whether the  representation of youth in the media was accurate or not.
• talk about an overall view with youth and the media and how its changed over the year

Academic books

Bloom, C. (2012). Riot city: Protest and rebellion in the capital. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Briggs, D. (2012). The English riots of 2011 a summer of discontent. Hook, UK: Waterside Press.

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Clark, C. (2008). Media portrayal of young people impact and influences. Place of publication not identified: National Children's Bureau.

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Conboy, M. (2007). The language of the news. London: Routledge.Top of Form

Bottom of FormCottle, S. (2006). Mediatized conflict developments in media and conflict studies. Maidenhead, Berkshire, England: Open University Press.

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Haywood, I. (2012). The Gordon riots: Politics, culture and insurrection in late eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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Jones, O. (n.d.). The establishment: And how they get away with itTop of Form

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Jones, O. (2011). Chavs: The demonization of the working class. London: Verso.

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Negrine, R. (2007). The political communication reader. London: Routledge.