Reading The Media: The Sociology Of Mass CommunicationsGender, Ethnicity, Deviance, Youth Culture and the Mass Media
Crime, Social Problems, Deviance and Youth In the Mass Media.
The definitions of crime and deviance, indeed, what we understand by the terms is, it can be argued not arrived at objectively, but part of a social process in which the mass communications industries themselves have a powerful role. That being said it should noted that the definition of crime and criminality does have at least an external validation - the Law. A criminal act is one which is defined primarily by the legislature- a crime by definition breaks the code of behaviour that is ossified by the process of parliament, the judiciary and the security forces. But ..... is "mugging" a crime? If so there is no statute in British criminal law that uses the term. The term mugging is a relatively new one, however despite this is very widely understood. What we understand by mugging has no legal basis -it is entirely a media construct, and "the mugger" a tabloid media creation. As Cohen and Young argue in "Folk Devils and Moral Panics" the categorisation amplification and sensitisation to particular forms of crime can have a reactive effect in the public sphere. As many studies have shown (eg Cohen & Young " The Manufacture of News" 1976) The news media, almost as a consequence of their existence tend to amplify the exceptional (ie Violent crime rather than the far more common routine property crime) and that this amplification can and does have an effect on social behaviour. For example based on officially sanctioned crime prevalence statistics the most likely age and gender group to become victims of violent street crime in males under the age of 30. But fear of violent crime is more common in young women (much less common victims) and the elderly (only very rarely victims). This process is also, of course reactive - fear of crime restricts social behaviour and therefore reduces vulnerability. In addition to altering the perception of the prevalence of violent crime the media, by concerted campaigns, can exert influence on the legislature itself leading to the criminalisation of behaviours and life patterns. (eg the "Traveller" and the Criminal Justice Act -1994)
Deviant behaviours and lifestyles that do not fall within the remit of the criminal justice system are far more complex and subjective -what is deviant to you may not be to me and vice versa -and the media do seem to make an overt contribution to that is consenually understood as morally deviant rather than illegal.
Some commentators, notably within the religious right in the USA, even go so far as to assert that the mass communication industries are instrumental in the creation of deviancy of certain types:
Every study shows a direct correlation between poor intellectual performance and frequent television watching. No surprise. As a society, we're doing more and more to deglamorise and control tobacco products, but so far, we're doing no more than gripe about inane ads, violent movies, obscene songs, vitriolic talk shows, stupid sitcoms, though they degrade our minds, our families and our nation.(29 September 1994 DONELLA H MEADOWS Los Angeles Times)
It is evident, especially in the UK tabloid press, that deviant lifestyles are defined by the media in interaction with public opinion. Even the most cursory glance at the tabloid press in the UK will draw the conclusion that there exists a set of fairly narrow limitations on social roles that if transgressed constitute deviance.
Youth Cults and Youth Culture, like deviance are largely defined by and labelled by the media. From the Teddy boys of the fifties through the Mods and rockers of the early sixties to hippies, angels, skins, punks, yuppies, to raga muffins and ravers of the nineties the mass media play a role so important that the cults and cultures themselves adopt labels driven by them rather than internally.
There is also a relationship between deviance and youth culture. Some youth groups are labelled deviant, named, and demonised by the media:
'YOB', once a slang insult, is now a descriptive category used by tabloid and quality newspapers alike. Incorporating other breeds, like the lager louts, football hooligans and joyriders, yob is a species of young, white, working-class male which, if the British media is to be believed, is more common than ever before. The yob is foul-mouthed, irresponsible, probably unemployed and violent. The yob hangs around council estates where he terrorises the local inhabitants, possibly in the company of his pit-bull terrier. He fathers children rather than cares for them. He is often drunk, probably uses drugs and is likely to be involved in crime, including domestic violence. He is the ultimate expression of macho values: mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
The yob is the bogey of the Nineties, hated and feared with a startling intensity by the British middle class. Janet Daley, in her Times column, describes such men as `drunken Neanderthals', while Jeremy Kingston, also in the Times, reckons they are `crapulous louts'. Simon Heffer of the Telegraph claims, like Peter Lilley, that not even women of their own social class can tolerate such ghastly specimens: `Nobody wants to marry a yob because he is boorish, lazy and unemployable.' The language in which such young men are described - louts, scum, beasts - can be heard across the political spectrum. It appears in an extreme form in Sun editorials and in a modified version in sombre discussions of youth crime, as well as in some feminist writings on contemporary masculinity. Individual men disappear in this language into a faceless mob, or appear only as thuggish stereotypes.(The Guardian 03 September 1994 "Whipping boys" ROSALIND COWARD)
Just as the "yob" as Coward suggests is a media construct so narrowly defined that it constitutes a "stereotype" it seems that normality is so constrained that it itself is a stereotype. Normality is- white, male, heterosexual, married, moderate alcohol user (as opposed to other recreational chemicals) who is in permanent secure employment, with a wife who if she works at all does so for "pin money" part time, their children do not truant nor do they rebel within the school all of whom live together in an owner occupied home in the suburbs.
It is this stereotype of a homogeneous mainstream cultural imperative - "the British way of life" that we will discuss in relation to gender, sexuality and ethnicity in the next lecture.
