The London Riots began after the death of Mark Duggan, a young black man who was wrongly shot to death by a policeman. I number of other thing such as tuition fees were also thought to be causes of the riots.
During these riots, the media created a collective identity of youths and used negative stereotyping to blame them for the violence that was happening. They did this through newspapers/articles and news reports on television. Examples:
- http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-escalate-police-battle
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8630533/Riots-the-underclass-lashes-out.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFs0b97sqg4
The main ways the media negatively portrayed them during this were by targeting their clothing, saying they all wear hoods and masks, by saying they're all violent to make the rioting look like criminal opportunism and by using derogatory terms such as chav.
Theories this case study relates to:
Shown by how the media created a collective identity in the news.
Stanley Cohen- Folk Devils, Moral Panic and Societal Deviance
All seen during the Riots.
Gerbner- Cultivation theory
The people watching or reading the news have an over exaggerated opinion on the crime that is happening.
Acland- Ideology of Protection- media representation of delinquent youths reinforce hegemony.
The news created an image of delinquent youths and compared it to normal behavior, therefore making the rioters behavior seem odd and unacceptable.
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